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Stay in control and keep your phone system onsite. We’ll fine-tune the features that are right for your business.
A premise-based business phone system, also known as PBX, doesn’t require an internet connection and uses a traditional dial tone from a telephone provider. Typically, all the telephony hardware is located onsite and is maintained by IT staff.
While there are many benefits of a premise-based or PBX phone system, there is often a higher upfront cost compared to a cloud-based system, but costs will reduce over time. A premise-based business phone system is better suited to office-based workers, compared to mobile and home workers.
You have full control and can fine-tune the phone features you need. Additional features can be cheaper to add per user.
Premise-based phone systems can handle a much higher number of simultaneous calls compared to a cloud-based system.
Employees don’t have to learn how to use new software or an app and are familiar with how to make regular landing calls.
Premise-based phones can be converted to work over the internet (VoIP). Get the same benefits of a cloud-based phone.
Over time, a premise-based phone system can be cheaper than a cloud-based system due to lower monthly costs.
Businesses with a weaker internet connection find that premise-based systems offer improved call quality.
With continual innovation of phones and technologies, it’s difficult to keep up with the latest trends in the industry – this is where Mint Network plays a supporting role.
We help you choose the most appropriate telephone system for your business, ensuring you have the right numbers of lines and handsets as well as the correct call packages.
We try to accommodate all budgets and are often able to find great cost savings on current plans. All our systems are future-proof because we know what’s on the horizon in the telephony world and we are best placed to ensure that your business isn’t left behind as newer technology is released.
We always advise our clients to consider the environment they operate in, whether that be in a busy or quiet office or a home setup. During the pandemic outbreak, many businesses discovered they were ill-equipped to work remotely, and IT managers had to make snap decisions at very short notice to enable their employees to successfully work-from-home.
Whether you choose a cloud-based or an on premise-based telephone system, every office will need structured cabling referred to as CAT5 or CAT6. CAT6 offers more than twice the speed compared to CAT5. While CAT5 is sufficient for smaller businesses, for example, up to 100 employees, CAT6 is often preferred for larger companies.
Read more about our structured cabling services.
Customer feedback has frequently shown our support and maintenance of telephone systems, internet and internal cabling as outstanding. We offer a comprehensive package which includes all engineer call-outs, so you are not faced with additional fees every time you want to move something or make a change. This covers everything from office layout move to a desk reshuffle.
Read more about our support and maintenance.
Would you like to improve security in and around your office? Keep burglars away from your private data and belongings with CCTV cameras and an automated system that can notify the right people when suspicious behaviour is detected.
While buying the right CCTV hardware is critical in protecting your business, so is setting it up correctly and the maintenance.
If you’d like to know more about how Mint Network can help to make your business more secure, visit our CCTV page.
Whether you have IT staff or not, we know a new phone system can take some getting used to. That’s why we offer personalised training to your teams on how to get the best out of your on premise or cloud-based telephone systems.
As part of our initial consultation, we’ll review your current IT and maintenance costs. We’ll understand what areas you need more help with and identify opportunities to lower costs from both an infrastructure and staff perspective where appropriate.
In many cases, our customers are surprised by how we can increase the quality of the telephony services they receive while lowering ongoing costs.
We provide phone systems that are simple and scalable, so they won't hold you back when your business grows.
Our highly skilled experts will help you choose the best telephone system from trusted and award-winning companies.
Get field-based engineering support that's tailored to your needs and provides an advantage over your competitors.
A cloud-based telephone system is often referred to as a ‘hosted voice’ or VoIP phone system and is located in secure data centres away from your office. A premise-based telephone system consists of hardware purchased by the client and is based on the client’s premises.
Premise-based telephone systems are more expensive to buy because you need to purchase all the hardware upfront and then pay a qualified engineer to install it.
Once the initial expense is paid, the cost of running a traditional telephone or premise-based system is lower when compared to a cloud-based telephone system, and that’s because you own the hardware.
However, you will still need to have a good relationship with the suppliers of hardware who will maintain and upgrade your system when you need to make changes. For example, when you upgrade your phone or the desk layout in the office is changed, and this will come at an extra cost.
Yes, but there are several exceptions. Number portability is a feature that enables you to port your number to VoIP, which means you can take that number anywhere in the UK or abroad. However, your PBX telephone system does need to be VoIP enabled.
In some circumstances, you can keep the traditional telephone lines if the new office location you are moving to is served from the existing BT Openreach exchange. If however, this is not the case, number portability will enable you to migrate your number to a VoIP cloud system, or you may be able to use your existing PBX if it can be upgraded to accommodate VoIP.
You should also check with your provider if there is a porting fee involved and typically this costs £55 for multiline or £11.00 for a single line, so be sure to check. It would help if you also took into account lead-times which are 10 business days from submitting your case.
With a traditional business telephone PBX system such as a Panasonic telephone system, you can divert calls to your mobile at the touch of a button.
However, you can only divert incoming calls to a single mobile or landline phone number. This is often fine for small businesses, but what about larger firms with more staff?
This is clearly a limitation, as the second caller would either hear an engaged tone or go through to Vodafone or your mobile carrier’s voicemail.
Furthermore, when diverting calls, you are also using your line resources, so if you have three lines connected to your premise-based phone system, one would be required to take the call and the second to send the call out to a third-party location. Therefore, a second call may be unanswered, which could represent a lost opportunity for your business.
Finally, because the traditional premise-based PBX office phone system does not pass on the caller’s details when diverting calls away from the office, you would not be able to recognise the call or call the caller back when at home or mobile.
A modern premise-based PBX phone system like a Panasonic NS700 or NS1000 and even older generations like an NCP500 can accommodate SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunks. With SIP, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and cloud-based calls are possible.
However, there may be an upgrade charge involved in purchasing and installing extra hardware. This capability extends the life of the on-premise-based telephone system and it remains a popular choice for many organisations which prefer to keep control of their assets on their premises with the cost advantages this may bring.
Please bear in mind that many companies still have traditional ISDN2 or ISDN30 telephone lines. Openreach announced these services will be turned off in 2025 and the core digital technology is becoming quickly outdated. All companies will have to transition to IP technology which will involve either using existing PBX systems with SIP trunking, or a cloud-based telephone system.
This depends on the type and age of your existing telephone system. The short and straight answer is yes, but it depends on the current resources and configuration, which is why it’s best to check this with our engineers.
Panasonic premise-based telephone systems can be easily scaled, and sometimes this may require additional hardware or licenses, depending on the system.
A more traditional analogue telephone system may have its limitations—however, a modern Panasonic telephone system, which is an IP solution, can accommodate hundreds of employees.
Traditional telephone systems using traditional lines like analogue and ISDN have more complex limitations as they are physically limited by how many telephone lines can be physically connected to the main server and likewise for the number of extensions.
It really pays to weigh up the costs and advantages of investing in a system like the MS700 or NS1000 which can be scaled up if required or to look at alternative technology like the cloud-based VoIP telephone system.
Get in touch to discuss your options with our phone engineers
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