Telcare

Telephone systems maintenance is sometimes, rather unfortunately, seen as something of the ‘poor sister’ of small business phone systems.

While installing new boxes and new functionality has a certain ‘glamour’ to it, by contrast, talking about maintenance sometimes runs the risk of generating apathy and indifference.

If so, that would be a great pity – whether you are an SME or a major corporate enterprise.

The reason for that is quite simple – engaging in appropriate telephone systems maintenance may be something that both keeps your business running and saves you money.

Here’s why:

• any technology is capable of going wrong – in the case of small business telephone systems, routine preventative maintenance may help avoid downtime and related problems;
• some warranties may actually require periodic maintenance activities for them to stay in force;
• some business phone systems may work more efficiently if they are periodically maintained;
• keeping a system in tip-top condition may avoid expensive remedial activities downstream.

Broadly speaking, telephone systems maintenance comes into two major categories:

• that which is typically assigned to someone in your organisation to do regularly (e.g. checking log files etc);
• that which requires expert level intervention and assistance (that may be via the telephone or sometimes through the attendance of an onsite engineer).

How you obtain your business telecoms maintenance services may vary depending upon your preferences, however, it may not be advisable to rely on luck or being ‘able to find someone’ in the event of the crisis.

The way to avoid being forced to do so is to:

• take out what is called a telephone maintenance contract (this may be called different things by different people) – this is a contractual commitment from a professional supplier of maintenance services;
• make sure that this covers not only routine systems maintenance but also the provision of emergency services in the event you are having major problems with your system;
• ensure that, as part of the contract or as a separate appendix, you have in place something called an SLA (Service Level Agreement) which is something that will commit the service provider to responding to you within certain specified periods of time;
• be prepared to invest some time and perhaps a little money, in ensuring that you have at least two people in your own organisation who understand your system to the extent that they are capable of undertaking routine preventative maintenance and liaising with your external service provider to aid in the fast diagnosis of any problems.

We are confident that our telephone systems maintenance services offer exemplary service and cost-effective solutions. Not only do we pride ourselves on offering a personal service, whether you are simply making an enquiry or are a long standing customer, but always strive to offer budget-conscious solutions. This means you can rest assured that your business telephone system is in safe hands, allowing you to get on with doing what you do best – running your business.

Modern business phone systems tend to be robust, particularly if they’re sourced from a major supplier such as Siemens business telephone systems. However, telephone systems maintenance is also critically important.

Here are a few tips that may help you avoid crises and help keep your costs down.

1. Don’t ignore it

However modern and robust your system is, there are typically a range of regular maintenance tasks that are required to keep it functioning efficiently and to reduce the chances of the system failing.

Some of these are things you can do yourself, others are best left to qualified experts such as us. Of course, we are always available if you have any questions or queries about your telephones system.

2. Use a maintenance and support contract

Maintenance contracts can help avoid downtime and may be a far most cost-effective way of getting things fixed if they do go wrong.

Calling around in panic mode during a crisis may prove to be very expensive and traumatic.

3. Be cautious about investing in yesterday’s solutions

The old adage of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” may often hold true – but it can be taken too far.

Some telephone systems reach a point where they cannot be easily or economically maintained and serviced. Parts may become difficult or even impossible to obtain and the overall system may become impossible to expand.

It may also prove to be incompatible with more modern systems – so while your business grows so may your telephone system requirements. This could mean you may find yourself in the position of having a business communication system that lets you down – or having to buy and install a whole new telephone system.

If you stick with it, you may not only find yourself facing increasing costs for telephone systems maintenance but also your service providers may have more and more trouble restoring the system when it fails.

We can advise you when your system has passed the point at which it makes economic or risk-management sense to continue to invest it in and when it may make sense to consider a replacement business telecoms system.

4. Think about soft communications

Business phone systems are not a fashion accessory – but they may communicate things about your organisation that you may regret.

Today we live in a competitive world and whether you’re trying to secure new clients, customers or students etc, people will form impressions of you based upon the technology you are able to provide for them to use.

So, phone systems that are constantly down, that can’t interface with the more modern systems of others or which simply look as if they have just come off the set of a 1950s film, may not communicate the message you’d wish about your operations.

So, telephone systems maintenance is critically important but so is ensuring that your basic system is fit for purpose in the 21st century world.

Telephone systems maintenance is one of those things that it’s all too easy to overlook.

After all, modern small business telephones systems are put together with technology that is far more reliable than earlier generations of what may appear to be similar equipment. So why bother with a maintenance contract?

Theory and practice

The key weakness in such sentiments is that they’re really hostage to fortune.

For example, if your business telecom services have just collapsed in a heap and you can’t use them to contact your clients (and vice-versa), then you may not take much consolation from the fact that you’ve just been exceptionally unlucky and everyone else is okay.

In fact, even if everything is currently fine, you typically will have two concerns:

• to stop problems occurring in the first place;
• to ensure that any problems that do arise are fixed quickly and effectively.

Prevention

Once installed, all small business telephone systems may typically benefit from preventative telephone systems maintenance.

Some of this you and your colleagues may be able to do yourself with training. This is sometimes referred to as systems administration.

Other aspects of prevention may be a little more technically demanding and require specialist support.

This may involve (depending upon your system) things such as:

• checking and clearing log files;
• checking error messages and taking corrective actions where required;
• periodic circuit tests;
• disaster recovery and standby testing;
• etc.

Although these actions can’t guarantee that you won’t experience troubles down the line with your office telephone system, they may reduce the chances of catastrophe.

This may be doubly important if you have an older or antiquated system. Such business telephone systems may well have passed their natural expiry date but that may be extendable, to a point, if they are regularly checked and maintained.

Cure

However diligent your telephone systems maintenance, there is always the possibility that you’ll suffer what’s sometimes called a major system outage.

In those circumstances, your business may grind to a halt very rapidly indeed if you can’t communicate with the outside world.

Should that worst-case scenario arise, what you won’t want is a philosophical debate about why it happened but rather a fix – and quickly.

That’s why businesses where business telecoms are critical to their operation sometimes have two things in place:

• a support contract with specified service levels (this may be with the manufacturer or an agent if the system is under warranty or a third-party it if is not);
• a standby system that can kick-in to provide minimal telecoms support until such time as your own system is fully restored.

Price

The support structure you select and pay for will be defined by your perceptions of the criticality of telecommunications to your business.

What is clear is that economising on telephone systems maintenance and related contracts may be a significant risk.

If you have any form of business telephone system, then sooner or later you’ll have a problem – unless you’re exceptionally lucky! That’s why a telephone systems maintenance contract may be very important to the continuity of your business.

Of course, today’s technology is generally reliable and it may also have a high degree of what’s called fault tolerance. In other words, a single problem shouldn’t cause your entire system to collapse and there should be a degree of built-in backup.

Even so, your business telecoms are likely to be core to your ability to conduct your business. Lose them and in some cases you may be physically unable to continue your professional activities.

Having a telephone systems maintenance agreement could help you avoid such a catastrophe. It may offer three forms of protection:

• preventative inspection and maintenance;
• the attendance of qualified engineers on your site if you encounter a problem;
• fallback or contingency emergency cover.

Preventative inspection is self-explanatory and may be important – particularly if you have an old and perhaps obsolete system. It may be serving your needs perfectly adequately but if it goes wrong, it could be out-of-warranty and the original provider may no longer support it.

Having engineers get to you quickly if you lose your system may be of paramount importance. These sorts of contracts are typically governed by what’s called an SLA (service level agreement), which provides you with specified target levels for the service. This may cover things such as:

• the average time for an engineer to get to your premises;
• target resolution times (to get your system back up and running);
• periods of cover such as 24/7 or during normal office hours only, depending on your needs etc.

Fallback provision, when provided as part of telephone systems maintenance contracts, is sometimes called contingency cover or it may also be included as part of a telephone disaster recovery plan.

This type of cover means that in the, hopefully unlikely, event that your telephone systems are unavailable for an extended period through fault or a disaster that affects your office, you can quickly switch to a backup system until your own is repaired and restored.

In the case of recently purchased and modern business telecoms systems, your provider may offer a period of reactive support and maintenance as part of the purchase.

If this has expired, there are providers of such contract services.

Telephone systems and their maintenance is an area that it’s perhaps tempting to economise on. This may be particularly true if you’ve had a long trouble-free period using your existing business telephone systems.

If so, some caution may be advisable. If your system fails, it is likely to do so without being thoughtful enough to provide you with a warning period! Thinking about a telephone systems maintenance contract in advance of such a crisis just might save you some stress and also possibly your business.