When a customer calls in looking for a basic phone system at an affordable price, I generally recommend the Xblue X16 or a Microsoft Response Point system.

The customer will then ask which one is better.

Neither phone system is better than the other, it is only a question of which one is better for your specific business needs.

The first thing we need to find out it how many users and telephone lines they plan on having. The Xblue X16 will max out at 6 lines/16 users. The Response Point systems can handle up to 20 lines/50 users and can use as many VoIP channels as your bandwidth will handle.

Aside from the number of lines/users, the price and features will also factor into the decision. Give us a call and we'll be happy to give you a quote over the phone or send one via email.

Below I have laid out some of the pros and cons for each system to let you decide which one would be better suited for you.

Xblue X16

 Pros

• Less Expensive to configure
• Simple installation -does not need to be setup on your network
• X16 phones include line appearance and programmable buttons
• Includes 3 year manufacturer's warranty
• Flexible ringing options allow you to bridge a fax machine in front of system

Cons

• Not capable of setting up ring groups or phantom extensions
• No PC assistant or admin software
• Cannot setup remote phones
• If using VoIP service, the channels must be converted through additional hardware

 Microsoft Response Point

 Pros

• Advanced speech recognition functionality allows you to manage your calls without having to remember everyone's extension. Also works with the auto-attendant.
• Includes  software to make system changes and display valuable info on your computer to help manage your calls
• Allows you to have selected extensions to ring as part of a group
• Phantom extensions allow a user to be part of the system without having a physical phone.
• Can send voicemail in .wav format to your email account

Cons

• More expensive to configure
• Must be setup on IP network, so wiring is not as flexible as an X16
• Only Aastra RP phones have call appearance and programmable buttons
• Does not give you true line appearance

Hopefully this will give you some insight as to which system may work better for you.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 1-800-390-1200

The name may scare away some, but obviously not you. First, let me commend your bravery.

So what are phantom extensions and how are they used?

A phantom extension is a way to have a user/group/voicemail in your phone system without having a physical phone for that extension.  

There is a great deal of flexibility using this feature, I will share with you some of the ways this comes in handy for customers.

In general, sales people use phantom extensions often because they are always on the road. They can just have their calls go to a voicemail that they check every so often (or use email notification).  They can also setup the phantom extension to just route their calls to their cell #.

So although they are available in the auto attendant and have a company voicemail, there is no physical phone at the office for the sales person.

We have other customers who are interested in an Xblue X16, but since you can only route calls to a single extension and not to a group -we recommend going to a Response Point system and using a phantom extension to ring a group. This way they stay in the same price range and have the ability to setup groups.

I will explain the previous in more detail. Let's say for example you have a sales group and you want to certain extensions to ring when there is a sales call. You can setup a user in the admin program as Sales, and give it whatever extension # you want. You would setup this user, Sales, to ring the desired extensions of your sales team (ex: 102, 105, 107).

You can record your Response Point auto attendant greeting to say "for sales, say sales" when the customer says sales it will ring the desired extensions as a group. If they do not answer, you have a few options. You can have the call go back to the Auto Attendant, or you can have the Sales user voicemail answer.

It is important to keep in mind that there is no phone for the Sales user so people must check that mailbox periodically or use voicemail to email notification.

I've only mentioned a few ways that this feature can be used, but there are more depending on your preference.

You may not think about power outages often, but they do happen. If you are not prepared it can be troublesome for your business to lose communication for any given period of time.

When the power goes out at your business, your phone system will go out too unless you have a battery backup unit.

Fortunately for Xblue X16 owners, the unit has a line reserved for power outages.

On the back of the unit, the port labeled as Line 1 is your Aux CO Line. You can hook up any standard analog phone including cordless phones. ***X16 phones are digital and will not work on this port

During a power out, the analog phone you have plugged into the Aux CO Line will work on that single line.

This is great because by having an open line, you can still have outgoing/incoming calls to keep on top of things.

Technically you can use the analog phone plugged into the Aux CO Line even when there is no power outage, but there are some reasons why you would not want to do this:

1. You can only use the phone for line 1, so if someone is using that line the phone will not work.

2. You have no privacy. While you are on that line, anybody can press line 1 on their X16 phone and listen in. This is not possible while talking on a regular X16 phone.

3. You obviously will not have any system features with the analog  phone such as the ability to transfer, page, intercom, etc...

For people who don't mind the previous reasons, you can still use an analog/cordless phone on the Aux Co Line.

If you have any questions, please call us at 1-800-390-1200.

Here at Telco Depot, we like to provide the customer with the least expensive solution possible for their business phone system.

The least expensive systems we sell are the Xblue X16 and Syspine Response Point. If one of these systems can meet their needs, we are happy to save the customer some money.

If a customer is looking to set up remote locations, have flexible ringing options, and extensive call routing capabilities we recommend going with a Talkswitch or Allworx system.

Both of these systems share many common features, however, there are some key differences between the two. I have listed the pros and cons for each system below to let you draw your own conclusion as to what system is best for you.

Pros                                                                                                                         

• Does not require professional installation                                     
• Programming is user friendly                                                     
• More affordable phone options                                                         
• Slightly less expensive per user 

Cons

• Only 16 Max users per server (compared to Allworx w/30 expandable to 60)
• Difficult to configure multiple servers
• Requires client software for administration (software needs to be installed on any computer that uses administration) 

allworx

Pros

• Very High Quality
• Extremely Flexible
• Unlimited # of VoIP channels at no extra cost (compared to 8 max per server w/Talkswitch)
• Great for remote phones and multi-sights
• Browser based administration (can access admin from any computer, does not conflict w/your operating system)

Cons

• Requires professional installation
• More flexibility means more difficult to program
• Expensive to go beyond 6 analog telephone lines

We will be posting a more comprhensive feature comparison this week.

Hopefully this will provide you with a basic comparison between the Talkswitch and Allworx systems.

For more info, please call us at 1-800-390-1200

Sometimes a customer will call in looking for a basic phone system and ask for my recommendation.

There will be many factors in determinig what kind of system I recommend. Depending on the customer's needs, a Microsoft Response Point System may be the perfect solution.

The Response Point systems have an advanced speech recognition function that allows the user to press the blue button on the phone and speak a command. For example: Press blue button and say Call Paul.

This is handy so you don't have to remember an extension # for everyone in your company.

The speech recognition also works with the automated attendant so you can say in your greeting: for sales, say sales. The system will recognize the customers speech and transfer the call to the appropriate department.

The Response Point systems also give you the option of connecting your standard analog lines to continue using your phone company's phone service, or use VoIP to save money.

Instead of having to do all of your editing from the phone itself, all programming is done on your computer with the included software.

The ablility to have your voicemail sent to your email account is one of the top features our customers appreciate.

You can even import your contacts from MS Office so the names and phone numbers of your contacts are immediately integrated with the speech recognition function.

There are too many features and details to talk about in this post, so I have copied and pasted a link below to the Syspine site (a Response Point manufacture).  

The following link contains some great videos that demonstrate Response Point in use:

http://www.syspine.com/microsoft-response-point-training.aspx#

If you scroll down the Syspine page, you will see there are 6 more videos.

To find out more information about Response Point systems, please call us at 1-800-390-1200

I've mentioned in a previous post that I am new to this industry.

Most of my work history has been in finance.

I must say that I find working here at Telco Depot to be much more rewarding than my previous work experiences.

What I like about working here is constantly hearing from customers how relieved they are that they got someone on the phone who can answer all of their questions and make them feel confident about finding the best solution for their business phone system.

Every day we are getting more and more calls about the Xblue X16 phone system.

At first, we didn't understand the reason for this. It's not like we're running TV commercials for it or anything.

After speaking to a number of customers, the reason became obvious. They had already looked at this product somewhere else and the people they spoke with either could not answer their questions, came off condescending about their level of knowledge, or were charging a much higher price than us.

It is nice to work in a field that I can be valuable to the customer instead of feeling like I have to try and sell something to make my supervisor happy.

Tom has made it very clear from my first day that he does not want to sell the customer anything that they don't need.

The tone that he has set for Telco Depot has clearly resonated with customers, and it is nice to be part of a winning team.

What a surprise, another post dedicated to the Xblue X16! I bet you're exited!  For this post, I would like to make clear what the X16 can and can't do as far as setting up your messaging.

Customers often call telling us they would like an affordable phone system that will allow someone to call and press 1 for sales, press 2 for customer service, etc.

The X16 does not do 1-touch dialing, however, you can still dial a department, individual, or function by a 3-digit extension.

For example: When you record your automated attendant message, you can say "dial 301 for sales, dial 302 for customer service, to speak with John Smith dial 303"

The X16 does include a single 1-touch feature, but not the way  more expensive systems do. The X16 will allow you to use the digit 7 as your one touch feature and this will transfer your call to the AUX OGM.

For example: You can say during your auto attendant message "for directions, dial 7." You would then use your AUX OGM to give directions to your business.

That's great and all, but what exactly is an OGM????

I'm actually glad you asked because I was just about to tell you.

OGM stands for Out Going Message. The X16 allows you to record a Day OGM (will answer during business hours), a Night OGM (after hours), weekend OGM (obvious), holiday OGM, and AUX OGM.

You do not have to use all of these, but they are there if you want them.

If you need help setting up your messaging, you can always give us a call at 1-800-390-1200

Fortunately for customers purchasing a system here at Telco Depot, we provide free pre-programming for all phone systems. Whether a customer is setting up an Allworx, Aastra, Syspine, Talkswitch, Panasonic, or Xblue system; the most common question we get is "should we use auto attendant." Even though every business is different, the usual answer is NO.

We find that giving your business the personal touch will make the customer view your business as a more progressive company.

Some feel that they should setup their business phone system to have an auto attendant because it gives the image of a larger organization. Having the human touch, however, will ultimately help build a better realtionship with your clients.

We realize that some businesses may depend on auto attendant if they have a very busy office with no receptionist.

In our case, we are only using auto attendant because we are transitioning from our old phone system to a new Allworx system and the Allworx is not fully setup yet.

While there are some exceptions, always try putting yourself in your customers shoes, and ask yourself what would you like to hear if you were calling.

As I mentioned in my previous post, some customers are not exactly 100% in love with the internal hold music on their phone system.  Fortunately, some systems like the Xblue X16 and Panasonic will allow you to connect an external device such as a stereo, mp3 player, or computer to play external audio. This will work fine for some, but not everyone.

I strongly recommend taking a look at the Nel-Tech Message on Hold System for a number of reasons.

1. You get a free personalized message done by AMS (Audio Messaging Solutions) with your purchase of a Nel-Tech unit from Telco Depot. I advise you click the link to find out more information on AMS. The customer's first impression will be a lasting one, having a professional message specifically for your company will make for a much better impression than some of the tedious and repetative bleeps included with your standard phone system. Judge for yourself, have a listen to a few samples from their website here.

While you are waiting for them to deliver your personalized message, this system also includes it's own exeptional hold message similar to those found on their website. You can listen to the included message here.

2. While you can use your own mp3 or CD player as a source, you may not want to just leave an expensive device laying around your office where any number of things can happen to it. The Nel-Tech is designed specifically to work for phone systems, therefore it has no screen. The device is less vulnerable to theft since it cannot be used as a typical iPod/mp3 player. All the editing must be done on your computer via a USB cable. The mp3 files are simply dragged and dropped similar to a digital camera.

It is also encased in a durable hard plastic that will not damage easy. For further protection it can also be mounted to a wall.

3.  The external device must be playing continuously in order to be heard. The Nel-Tech will play continuously at CD quality bit rates. It can store 64 minutes of audio (mp3 format) on  removable flash cards.

If you have any questions about external messaging, please give us a call at 1-800-390-1200

This past Friday, a customer called me who was less than thrilled with the internal hold music on his Xblue X16 phone system. As much as we here at Telco Depot love the X16 for what it does, we share the customer's lack of enthusiasm (to put it delicately) for the internal music.

There are 2 simple solutions to change this.

1. The X16 will let you plug in an external device such as an mp3 player, stereo, or computer to play your music on hold. This is done via a 2.5 jack (the same type headphones use) on the back of the system.  You should be able to purchase a 2.5 cable at your local electronics store that will connect these devices.

To change the settings that will allow this: press program >  system setup > music source> set it to external.

Now your music on hold will play from the device that you have selected. Please keep in mind that the music does not record and save into the X16, the source must be continuously playing in order for the customer to hear it.

2. This may work great for some, but not all. Not everyone will want to leave their expensive mp3 player just laying around the office somewhere. There are also users who may not have a stereo or computer close enough to plug into the X16.

In this case, we recommend the Nel-Tech Message on Hold System. It is made specifically for phone systems. Upon purchasing from Telco Deopt, you will get a free professional message done by AMS (Audio Messaging Solutions). There is too much info about this device to post in this entry. For more information please check my next post about the Nel-Tech messaging systems.

It seems that since I began working here a few weeks ago, Xblue phone systems have been flying out of here like hot cakes. I always joke with Tom that just my presence drives revenue. Every day more and more people are calling about this system and presenting me with new challenges to provide the ideal solution for their business. The most common issue I've had to address is using a fax machine with the X16, while keeping the fax line available for outgoing calls when needed.
    
The X16 does not have any analog ports to plug in a fax machine the way some of the more expensive systems do. Luckily there is a quick work-around for this issue that has worked with great success for many of our customers.

The solution is as follows:

1. Most phone lines are run from a standard RJ11 jack in your wall. You want to plug a 2 way splitter into this jack so you can divide that single line into 2 copies allowing you to plug one copy to your fax machine, and the other copy to your X16. We recommend using your last line as the fax line with the X16. For example: if you have 4 lines total, use the X16's line 4 as your dedicated fax line so it is easy to remember.

Important: Please note that there will be some exceptions to Step 1 depending on your wiring. Some people may not have their lines coming from a jack, but from a direct source. Some wiring setups will also have multiple lines assigned to a specific jack. If this is the case, please contact us at 1-800-390-1200 and we will be happy to help provide a solution.

2. From each of your Xblue phones you will need to hit program > phone settings > Ringer on/off > and turn off ringing for the fax line you have selected (remember to use last line as recommended). This will make it so that when somebody is sending a fax to you, nobody will answer that line by mistake.

3. While in the phone settings menu, make sure that your answer delay time is set for more than 10 seconds. This will allow your fax machine enough time to answer before the system goes to an automated message.

4. We recommend setting your fax machine to answer on first ring so that it answers before your system routes the call to an automated message.

Now you are all set to send/receive faxes and you can still use your X16 phones to make outbound calls on that line. Keep in mind that if someone is sending you a fax while you are talking on that line, the fax will not transmit. This solution is to provide a more flexible setup to get more use out of a single line. If you have any questions, you can always call us at 1-800-390-1200 and we will be happy to help.

I recently read an article about how we have created the first man-made cell. The news is constantly reminding us of how much closer we are to creating iPeople. All these advancements in technology and companies are still relying on 15 year old phone systems.

I started working here at Telco Depot last week as a brand new employee. I am not only new to the company, but new to the telecommunications industry as a whole. After learning about the most popular phone systems on the market, my initial reaction is that I am surprised that in 2010, there is still no such thing as the perfect phone system.

It seems that each system has a strength that is another one's weakness. Of course on the more expensive side of the spectrum, most of the issues are addressed, but at a cost that may not be in the customers range.

The most challenging part for me so far is to learn all the pros and cons for all of these systems to make sure that I am providing the best solution for the customer. At this stage, I run everything by Tom Grinde (the Jedi Master of telecom) before I provide any info to customers to insure that I am providing the best solution possible. I am very fortunate to be able to learn from a great team here that are passionate about their work and have a level of integrity that is second to none. It is rewarding to see how appreciative customers are when they are provided with valuable information during our live chats. I understand that I will always have something new to learn, but I am eager to take the training wheels off in the coming weeks.

With the advancements in technology, end users have become more sophisticated and telephone systems have evolved to the point where any data literate person can install and/or maintain their own business phone system.  But what phone system is right for your business? 

Here are 10 questions you should ask yourself before doing your research or talking to an IP Phone System expert at a company like Telco Depot (www.telcodepot.com).

• Do you understand your business type and the nature of your incoming calls?
  • Are phone calls perishable? How important is it to find a way to complete the call to the live person?
• How do you want your company to be perceived by the outside world?
  • Open, friendly, and willing with live answering of calls, or do you want to build the perception of a giant by using an automated attendant and departmental calling
• Do you experience high call volume and do you transfer calls frequently?
• What are your companies' capabilities to install and maintain a phone system on your own?
  • Installation vs. Do-It-Yourself
• What phone features are important to you?
• Do you have remote workers, a field sales force or just want to have a phone to work from home?
• How many office locations do you have or plan?
• What phone service provider are you using?
• What kind of phone service are you using?
  • Cable, DSL, VoIP, Digital etc...
• How many concurrent calls/phones will you need today, 6 months from now, or 3 years down the road? 

Whatever your business needs, make sure that you do plenty of research to ensure you're making the right decision.  Sometimes investing in a better phone system means giving up that extra cash today to make certain that your Business Phone System accommodates your business needs tomorrow.  Remember most business communications with customers are via the telephone.  Great phone service combined with good phone etiquette builds a powerful first impression.

Call 1-800-390-1200 today to talk to an expert at Telco Depot or visit us online at www.telcodepot.com.

Are you interested in the purchase of an Xblue x16 Small Business Phone System? Then you'll want to check out our F.A.Q.s and How To's, which you'll find on our Xblue pages. We know researching a phone system and all its features can be overwhelming. This information is here to help you get a better understanding.

What is a Hot Dial Pad? What is the Phone Book Feature, and how do I use it? Well we discuss these and other important topics and how they pertain to the Xblue x16.

You can always browse our Knowledgebase to find new explanations and to read our most popular posts.

In an effort to keep you informed we are updating our site with information you probably didn't realize you needed to know. We understand the "simple" things sometimes aren't so simple in fact they can be quite overwhelming so we've made and will continuously be adding new information to help you find the right phone system for your business.

We want to thank everyone for their wonderful feedback regarding the valuable information they find on our site. Our aim is always to educate and demonstrate how you can do your own telephone system installation and maintenance.

To this end, we'd love to hear from you. Let us know if there are any topics we should cover with our video "how to" series? Just drop us a line at info@telcodepot.com and we'll be happy to add it to our library.

Again, thank you for your wonderful feedback and keep those ideas coming.