AboutRichard Elsmore Expertise I can answer questions on installation and maintanence of telephone systems including programming and wiring, also experienced in cat5 cabling.
Experience PABX, Phone systems, cat5, telephone wiring, fault finding, programming, business and residential, Panasonic, Siemens,
Expert: Richard Elsmore Date: 2/13/2007 Subject: Office Telephone Hardware
Question Hi.
I've been asked to select a cordless telephone system for our small business - perhaps 8 handsets including portables. While I have no direct experience in this I am the resident computer "expert" and we're just a small company and running on a shoestring budget right now. Can you recommend any particular sets that would be suitable considering we need intercom capability, mailboxes, hands-free, etc. We're replacing some ancient Northern Telecom sets for which we have no documentation or wireless capability.
Thanks.
Answer If on a budget I would recommend ebay to buy a second hand set and someone like Panasonic are good for the small and medium size business. Voicemail is not normally build into systems as standard but can be brought after. If you want mailboxes etc that would cost more but cheapest option is to buy an analogue answer machine and set that to ring at night and also when all lines are busy, of course this is not as good as built in voicemail. Desk phones have displays and normally have programmable buttons for lines an features etc like call park button or call pick up so they are better in general than cordless phones as they have less buttons to program but the main advantage is that they are mobile. You can have basic analogue cordless phones that need a power plug and extension socket but you can get DECT phones that only require power but work off of a aerial type station that uses a digital extension these of course will cost more.
SO for very cheap buy a second hand phone system, buy an analogue answer machine and buy analogue cordless phone that need analogue sockets. Also maybe have a few desk phones as one maybe used for programming the system but modern systems (more money) can be done via a laptop. So consider how many lines and extensions first so you know the size of the system you are after. Panasonic are very reliable but you will probably need an engineer to install and program the system.
