Most customers have no idea how much a telephone system costs – do you? Sorry to complicate this but it’s not exactly formulaic. Calculating the cost of a phone system comes down to various components:
- How many phone lines are you connecting?
- What type of phone lines?
- How many handsets?
- Which phone system brand?
- What type of handsets – basic, standard, executive, manager models are typically available at different price points?
- Which features do you need? For many SME customers most of what they need will come straight out of the box but some additional features can be expensive.
As you can see the simple question of how much is a phone system has multiple variables. All hyperbole aside you can adopt some basic assumptions and the rule of thumb is the cost of a phone system is relatively accurate if you base it on about $500 per user for a fully installed pabx. This overs the system, the labour and the handsets. SO if you have an 8 handset system you should be looking at approximately $4000.
Of course you can rent, lease or buy a phone system and the choice should be yours – not the suppliers. So the costs of a phone system with 8 handsets could be as little as $100 per month fully installed.
The variables mentioned above will have an significant impact and the price could fluctuate by as much as 100%. If you opted for top of the line handsets and all the bells and whistles the $4000 example could be as much as $7-8000. However if that was the case it will probably be well justified with features that drastically reduced costs or enhanced productivity.
Before you ask for generic answers like “how much does a phone system cost” you must first answer the more important question of “what do you need a phone system to do?”. This is by far the more pertinent question and will set you on the right path. Otherwise if you remain completely price centric you may not open yourself up to what technology can offer your business.
To plagiarise and distort the immortal words of JFK – “ask not what the phone system costs but what it can do for you!”
