Choosing the best SME business phone system for UK business in 2022
Author: Sonia Older | Date published: August 2, 2022, UK | Read est: 6 min read
Having trouble choosing the best SME business phone system? You’ve come to the right place. In our latest blog, we deliver all the intel you need in order to select and implement a new phone system – confident in the knowledge it’s the right solution for your business.
As an SME, what is the best investment you could make in order to create a more connected business operation? Without doubt, your phone system is your most valuable tool; in any industry communication is king so making sure you never miss a call, customer or business opportunity should be top priority.
Is it time to update your SME phone system?
In today’s business world, your SME phone system needs to have the ‘X factor’ to fully support the new fast-paced, flexible work landscape, and to make sure you get the most out of every call. But what is the X factor? If one thing’s for certain, it’s that an old telecoms infrastructure that cannot keep up with the agile way in which we now work is not going to be doing your business any favours. Clunky, traditional on-premise solutions definitely mean you’re missing out on harnessing the call management powers of innovative and technically-advanced phone systems. And it’s highly likely you’re paying way over the odds too.
What can SME phone systems do for my business?
Priorities for SMEs include gaining and retaining new customers, increasing operational efficiency, improving growth revenue, reducing costs, promoting customer loyalty, enhancing competitive advantage and innovation. All these things can be achieved a surpassed by rolling out the right SME phone systems.
If your business phone system is ‘hosted’ and therefore resides in the cloud, you can tap into a multitude of tools and features that will help you work smarter, faster and from anywhere. Your long-term business plan more than likely has growth and expansion on the horizon, so investing in a phone solution that will see you develop from seed to success and beyond makes a great deal of sense, right?
Why should I move my SME phone system to the cloud?
By 2025, PSTN legacy systems will become null and void as traditional, copper-based phone lines (served by the public switched telephone network) are being switched off. As a result, time is of the essence for business to address their telecoms solutions and upgrade to a hosted cloud-based solution. Focus Group’s vast product portfolio also features a wide range of hosted PBX telephone solutions, which are ideal for SMEs who still want to stay in control of their hardware.
What are the benefits of the cloud?
It’s simple – a cloud-based phone system means a huge reduction in the amount of on-site equipment, freeing up valuable office space. Cloud telephony is also incredibly quick and easy to set-up, configure and manage.
Anytime, anywhere – wherever there’s an internet connection, cloud telephony grants full access to your phone system, features and functionality regardless of your location.
Cost efficiency – with hosted VoIP solutions, you only pay for what you need with the option of adding in additional users as and when operations expand. And with no hardware to manage or maintain, it’s a win, win situation.
Total flexibility – upscale or downscale anytime you want or add or remove different services, quickly and hassle-free.
Feature packed – draw on an abundance of call management features and analytics configured for your exact business needs.
Office phone systems for SME
So now we’ve ascertained that all things cloud-based are best office phone systems for SME. VoIP is fast becoming the new norm for business phone systems, as PSTN is phased out VoIP phone systems are the new SME business solutions designed to communicate using digital technology.
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the technology that converts your voice into digital signals, allowing you to make a call directly from a computer, a VoIP phone or other data-driven devices – it’s basically a phone service that’s delivered over the internet. A VoIP office phone systems for SME offers a flexible and scalable system for your business. Here are a range of the best phone systems for SME businesses.
Horizon phone system
This cloud-based, scalable and agile telecoms solution is perfect for businesses of every shape and size and delivers the power of unified communications only seen in larger enterprise organisations until now. Should you opt for the Horizon hosted phone system, you’ll be up and running in no time, benefitting from its feature rich portfolio. It offers unrivalled call management capabilities such as call handling, voicemail-to-email, collaborative call distribution and auto attendant through to live call boards, real-time analytics and call recording.
If you’re looking for enhancements to your package, Horizon Collaborate, Horizon for Microsoft Teams, Horizon Contact, Soft Client, Integrator and Akixi can all be easily integrated to take your phone system to the next level.
Microsoft Teams phone system
This business phone system shot to fame in 2020 as the pandemic triggered the ‘working from home’ trend. It delivers all you need to make remote working seamless and successful, quite literally turning your laptop into a phone.
A Microsoft Teams phone system integration allows you to call people outside of your Microsoft 365 business domain and to access those calls from any device. Feature-rich and flexible, Microsoft Teams delivers a cost-effective, reliable and scalable solution to really give your business a boost, including call analytics to show where performance can be enhanced. Users can enjoy the ultimate in collaboration; from phone calls to video meetings, syncing calendars, chat functions and sharing files. In a nutshell, everything is possible when it comes to communication and collaboration with Microsoft Teams.
SIP trunking
A SIP trunk call manager is a powerful telephony option for larger SMEs, allowing management of all calls over a single data connection. It keeps costs down as calls are generally cheaper, plus you can have multiple phone numbers without needing multiple lines. It’s highly scalable which is ideal if your business is growing and if you move business premises, your phone numbers can move with you.
Related content
> Unified comms blog
> Phone systems for hybrid working blog
> EU roaming in 2022
PBX phone systems for SME business communications
As an independent technology provider, Focus Group has well-established partnerships with big brand names to bring our customers the very latest technology. From Mitel to Ericsson-LG and Avaya, we’ll work with you to deploy the very best PBX system for your exacting requirements – one which will instantly enhance connectivity, productivity and customer service levels. Taking your business communications into the future.
Sonia Older
Brand & Campaign Manager
Sonia Older is the Campaign Manager at Focus Group and a highly experienced copywriter. She boasts over 20 years of experience in content marketing and PR across multiple industries, and is the key driver of content and PR for Focus Group across all UK offices. Away from work, Sonia usually swaps keyboard strokes for ski slopes in the Alps with her family.
