atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Phone systems recommendation

Greetings everyone,

I'm a newbie and pretty much clueless when it comes to phone systems. I became the phone system administrator at our retail garden center merely by posing the innocent question,"Why are the cashier's still writing down phone messages when we have voice mail?"

It has fallen to me to research phone systems since our lease on our Avaya ACS with PartnerMail is due to expire in fall.

We have 3 phone lines, 2 fax, and 1 for credit card authorization. We have 16 desk sets and 15 handsets. Because we have both employees working over 30 acres as well as sales occurring outdoors, we require sturdy, weather-resistant, cordless handsets that the employees can use to both answer customer calls as well as contact each other on internal lines, and they need to have sufficient range. We also need some basic voicemail, paging, and an auto attendant. Advanced features would probably be lost on us.

Avaya has been a good company overall for us as far as customer service goes but has lost favor because they stopped manufacturing our handset, the transtalk 9031, some years ago and we have been beset by malfunctioning refurbs.

Can anyone make recommendations for types of phone systems I should be looking for? Pitfalls to avoid? Thanks for your time!!

The Partner ACS will run any single line instruments..you don't have to use the Partner line.

And do they call you the phone fairy there at work?
Welcome to the forum PF

Ditto what Tom said.
I would also recommend the EnGenius Durafon's as your cordless solution. 3,000 acre range.

We have had good luck with the NEC Electra Elite. It supports both key sets and single line phones. It has caller ID, voice mail and auto attendant, plus the KSU has its own backup battery. It can be set up as a square key system and still allow line access from the cordless phones. Also, there are lots of repair parts available.