Small business phone system ?

Edwards Finance > Phones

Q. My brother is about to purchase a new phone system for his veterinary practice and has a few bids on NEC IPK Basic systems w & w/o voice mail. The questions we are having is whether or not we could install a system ourselves, and which of the systems we've looked at would provide adequate service for this smallish practice. I'm fairly well versed at installations of anything technical (LANetworked computers, regular phone lines, electrical systems, etc.) as I've been mechanical all my life. I've looked at his existing phone system and I know I could have installed that, with an instruction booklet. As a matter of fact, the wiring for that system is done quite haphazardly above the suspended ceiling.

A. I would be looking closely at the Panasonic TA824. As the number implies, you can get 8 lines and 24 phones in the system. A 6 line by 16 phone system with 2 ports of Voice Mail and 8 phones would be in that $2400 price range without installation. The Panasonic gives you Caller-ID to each phone port, USB programming, 2-way recording, and the ability to add single line phones with CID delivered to the set. Keep in mind, there are 2 prices for voice mail; one is delivered and the other is installed. I may be wrong, but when I had a Panasonic installed in my workplace, I was under the impression that quite a bit of the programming had to be done via computer with software available only to certified Panasonic dealers. I was told the voicemail programming couldn't be changed without that. Is that not true? BTW, very satisfied- 824 and TVS50. Check out ablecomm.com and necnec.com. Same company. They handle both the Panasonic and NEC systems. Give you what you need for self install and answer the phone when you have a question. I've done several Pana KXTD systems from them and recently an NEC 1000. No you don't need the "dealer" software but it does help. For Panasonic there are 3rd party softwares, for the NEC you can get it from the NEC web site. As the other guy implied when there are over 1000 settings some with a dozen choices and many choices in one area changing the meaning or options in another it can be a bit daunting the first time out. I can take a bit to get an auto attendant setup doing what you want even if the programming is a snap as the first time or two the office will say "we want" then later realize "oh, that's how it works... we don't want THAT". Call the Ablecomm folks after wandering their site. Now a note. Apparently Panasonic has stop manufacturing the KXTD series. Supposedly because they didn't want to change the production to meet Euro environmental rules. Whatever. It's still a great system and will be supported and have phones and part available for a long time. As someone who has done both the NEC systems are physically MUCH smaller and are easier to program. The Panasonic VM is a box ranging from the size of a shoe box to much larger. The NEC VM is a compact flash card that plugs into the base unit.

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