Hey everyone. Just a few questions.
We really need to upgrade our phone system.

We don't need a lot but our system must have
Voicemail
Call Transfer
Call Paging
Music On Hold
at least 2 different phone lines

What is everyone else using. Can anyone suggest a place to get a new phone system. The prices are so high so we are looking for something reasonable.

Also, Has anyone heard of a PBX SYSTEM. I have been hearing a lot about this. Anyone use it or have any advice on it.

Any suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You!

A PBX would be overkill for 2 lines. You might want to check into a keysystem, which is more suitable for smaller environments. You can also look into what is called IP Telephony, which is voice over IP.

We are using A Panasonic KX- TG4000B 4 line system that does everything you are looking for except the music on hold. We have had this system for 3 years and love it.

We are using gotvmail. It gives us everything we need. Even lets us select type of music that we want while customer is on hold. You can forward it to any phone.

Hope this helps!

FrameableArt

Ribbon People--> that panasonic phone looks real good. Just a few questions. Does this phone have the ability to add music on hold. Usually the phone needs a special slot, were you can attach a MOH system.

Also i noticed it has a Voice Mailboxes, does this allow you to transfer a call to a a specific voicemail box?

framableart thanks for the suggestion, i haven't looked at gotvmail yet. Will do so next.

Any other recommendations or suggestion welcome

we use www.angel.com

No Music on hold Yes you can send mail to specific mailbox's

My company got a Norstar Business Phone System from a company named Business Phones Direct, it cost about $550, which as far as I understand is rather inexpensive for a system.

I do IT for a smaller company so by default I got stuck programming the phones when we added two more to the system, the company we bought it from took the time to walk me through it and it was extremely easy, a month later we added one more phone and I did it myself, the display prompts you for everything but my boss was impressed. Overall we love the system and I personally couldnt have been more pleased with the vendor.

From my understanding a PBX system is used in LARGE enviornments, where there are a hundred or more users, and generally these systems cost $200 per phone or so, whereas a key phone system, the type we got, is used for smaller enviornments. They can grow out to two hundred phones or so, but generally they are meant to be used with a smaller number of users.

Music on Hold on our system is provided by a cd player, which plug into the system via its headset jack. We dont have voicemail, as we lease it from the phone company for a couple bucks per mailbox a month - I almost got my boss to splurge for a voicemail that would connect to our network but we really dont have enough employees to justify the cost.

Transfer and paging, from what I understand, are standard features on a key system.

Just for reference the one we got is a 308 phone system which means 3 lines by 8 phones max, but I believe they sold much larger ones.

Take a look at www.FreedomOperator.com

I use them in my business and I would much rather pay $20-$25 a month than for a PBX which would never really work as well and never get all the features that they can deliver. There wasn't even a setup charge. I had my message professionally recorded and it is awesome.