business PBX
Price is a factor in every single business decision you will every make, and that absolutely includes making the switch to IP telephony, upgrading your system, or otherwise spending money on your organization’s communications infrastructure. Now, we are not going to argue price should not be a factor. You have a budget for your unified communications solution and you probably can’t budge too hard on that budget, and that’s to say nothing of the fact the most expensive IP telephony solution probably isn’t going to be right for everyone. That being said, the least expensive IP telephony solution is unlikely to work for anyone.
Best Price vs. Best Deal
They sound the same but they are two different animals. So maybe I need to clarify my position just a touch… when I say “the least expensive IP telephony solution probably isn’t right for anyone” I really mean automatically defaulting to selecting the cheapest telephony solution around isn’t a good idea for a number of reasons.
For most businesses price of their communications solution is going to matter. It will matter more for some and less to others. The truth is, most price-sensitive businesses are not looking for the cheapest solution. They are looking for the best price/performance or price/feature ratio or price/brand ratios. So essentially they look for a DEAL. There are few, however, that look for the least expensive VoIP solution which could meet a single business requirement. Having sold a hundreds of different solutions over the last 9 years I can recognize this type of customer very easily. Unfortunately, this is often an indication that a inquirer has not done his/her homework and properly assessed business needs. Whenever discussion began from the price prospective (at least in my experience), there were usually multiple requirements that would end up being added later.
The Dangerous “Lowest Possible Cost Mentality”
The Lowest Possible Cost mentality is contagious, and it almost never negatively affects only one corner of your organization. If you adopt this mentality regarding the IP telephony solution you sign up for you should expect this mentality to poison every decision you make regarding all services and not just the business PBX or Unified Communications. This sort of mentality will cause you to avoid calling your provider when something goes wrong. One thing for sure: a cost of replacing your business PBX solution once you find that it does not adequately meet your business needs is going to be higher than the cost of getting it done right the first time.
No one will end up sticking with a system that isn’t robust enough to meet your needs for a very long time due to its excellent price.
The point in a nutshell: the “Lowest Possible Cost” mentality often drives decision makers to sign up for inadequate PBX solution. Having your primary focus on the cost will certainly lead you to something insufficient to meet your needs for the foreseeable future. Of course this rule applies to any purchase and not just IP telephony or Business PBX.