Whatever your reasons are for considering a phone upgrade; impending end of ISDN, improving patient services or reducing costs, a phone upgrade can seem a daunting task and knowing the right questions to ask can be a challenge.

Below are 7 questions to help get you started:

• Costs (Installation and On-going) – How much will the phone system cost to purchase and what will the on-going costs be? Ask for a break down of what is included so you can fully understand what you will be paying for.
• SLA – What level of support is included and how will the system be maintained? If your health centre operates out of hours, will support be available if required?
• Disaster recovery – What measures are in place to get you back up and running as quickly as possible?
• Resilience – Can the phone system be easily adapted to add or remove users as required? Will it go out of date quickly and what is the cost to upgrade to the latest software/hardware?
• Bells & Whistles – What features will you have access to and are they easy to set up and manage? Consider the needs of your practice; call routing, call recording, reporting tools. Ask for advice on other features which may help you day to day.
• Integration – Will the phone system integrate into your existing systems, such as EMIS to help ease the admin load and make contacting patients as easy as possible.
• Implementation – How will this be managed? Will patients need to be informed of downtime?

HBT Communications has worked within the Health sector for many years and is happy to provide help and answer any questions you may have about upgrading your phone system. We provide a complimentary phone system review, which will help you fully understand your current set up.

Book your phone review with us today.