Buying a New Phone System
Parker has been selling business phone systems for 30 years. We were exclusive to Toshiba the last 15 years. However, because of being at the wrong time and place in the Toshiba corporate world the Toshiba TelecomToshiba division was sold off to Mitel. While Mitel says the Toshiba Telecom product will not be End of Life, we forsee a tremendous slow down in product developement if not total maturity.
Interesting enough this put Parker in the same position you are of looking for a new phone system to offer our customers in 2017. Parker researched over a dozen top brands as if we were the customers. Being in the business we knew what to ask and how to find both the strenghts and weaknesses of each brand and platforms within each.
We believe we now offer the best choices available. We also can offer simultaneous quotes for different brands as well as explaining the strenghts and weakness of each brand to get the best fit for your company with the most bang for the buck. Parker is about long term relationships for your Telecom needs. We not only sell it, but we will stand with you to get the best from your system for years to come.
Parker is now authorized, trained, and ready to sell the following brands:
1) Toshiba 2) Samsung 3) ESI 4) Broadview/Windstream30 Years of Telecom Wisdom Available to you
So our owner, MikeL is happy to share his oppinions and no presure sales with you. He lives for this stuff and will happy to chat with you day, night, or weekends if he is available. He is BS Computer Science and although loves the newer VoIP/Cloud models sleeps easier with traditional premise systems as they are bullet proof. His answer is not predetermined, but based on your individual situation. Factors such as your needs, the quality of your internet, cabling, IT-Dept, are big factors in just selecting between CLOUD, Premise-VoIP, or Premise - Digtial/VoIP.
Let us learn your business telecom needs and give you the best choices amoung several of the best brands. This includes traditional digital/VoIP, VoIP only, wireless, and CLOUD. Find out why we chose these brands. Find out why other brands did not atract our attention.
The CLOUD is not really inexpensive !!!
At first glance CLOUD offerings look like the low cost solution. However, you must pay every month forever. With a premise system, once paid you only need to supply dialtone. The premise brands we offer are heavy duty phones with and easy 7-10 year life. Some of our base have used their systems for double that.
Another thing to consider is if your company income fluctuates. Buying a premise system while your in good times and enjoy the lower cost in lean times. We can crunch your specific numbers but here are a few simplistic examples:
| Phones | OneTime | Monthly | 3 years | 5 years | 7 years | 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Cloud | $0 | $120 | $4,320 | $7,200 | $10,080 | $14,400 |
| 4 Premise | $2745 | $88 | $5,913 | $8,025 | $10,137 | $13,305 |
| 8 Cloud | $0 | $240 | $8,640 | $14,400 | $20,160 | $28,800 |
| 8 Premise | $3540 | $119 | $7,824 | $10,680 | $13,536 | $17,820 |
| 24 Cloud | $0 | $720 | $25,920 | $43,200 | $60,480 | $129,600 |
| 24 Premise | $10,360 | $209 | $17,884 | $22,900 | $27,916 | $35,440 |
| 55 Cloud | $0 | $1,650 | $59,400 | $99,000 | $138,600 | $198,000 |
| 55 Premise | $18,855 | $399 | $33,219 | $42,795 | $52,371 | $66,735 |
| 100 Cloud | $0 | $3000 | $108,000 | $180,000 | 252,000 | $360,000 |
| 100 Premise | $25,775 | $399 | $40,139 | $49,715 | 59,291 | $73,655 |
Note that these are examples of minimal solutions. Both CLOUD and Premise solutions can significantly increase from these examples. CLOUD was prices as self-install. Premise was installed turn-key.
CLOUD vs Premise Programming and Support
A CLOUD system is typically a stripped down system built for the masses. Usually it is a self-install job or the CLOUD company finds a low cost local installer who disappears after the install. The Customer is left to programming the system themselves or calling into a minimum wage often foreign call center for help. Most CLOUD center call centers are distributed with a CLOUD representative only familiar with one aspect of the their system. Be prepared for long waits on the phone, multi-day call backs, and having to be transferred between several agents, Oh, and no-one in the call center is familiar with your company or your system design. This leads to minimal design and waisted time explaining yourself over and over again, or fixing one thing to disturb another.
However, obtain your CLOUD from Parker Communications is not just us taking a commision and passing you to the CLOUD sales force. Instead we enhance the typical CLOUD sale by providing you a local sales engineer who will often sell, program, train, and service your system for years to come. Parker also has relationships to negotiate a wider range of options that offered directly. For example, removing the rediculous and sneaky auto-renews that plague are industry.
A premise system is sold and supported by the local authorized dealer. Your dealer is available after the sale to keep your system at its best. If things go bad local service folks knowledgeable about your specific system can come on site to help straighten things out fast. Authorized dealerships require staff to be factory trained and certified, local installation, product quota to guarantee staff has adquate time on the system, factory enforced ethics, and more.
Small Customer down example, Nov 17,2017
1:37pm Call received in office for a new customer wishing to speak to a tech. 1.39pm Tech located and interrupted to call customer. The new guy at the garbage company lifts trash bin over garbage truck to unload but hits overead power wires, shorting them and breaking them into leaping sparking wires. All building power goes on and off several until PGE can turn off power from pole. Much of customers electronic equipment is destroyed including the 1992 Toshiba phone system. Testing discussed as well as options. 2:22pm Customers calls backs and wishes to upgrade their main box and keep their 1992 phones, and upgrade phones later. Customer decided time to modernize the 1992 system. Will keep 1992 Toshiba phones for now until crisis is over. Replace Toshiba control box 5 lines by 8 phones with overhead paging. 3:00pm Tech completes existing job, and drives 60 miles back to office to pickup inventory. 4:45pm Tech arrives on site. Reviews options with customer and begins deinstall/reinstall. Customer in and out with programming requests. 9:15pm Install complete, tested with customer. Overtime waived. Customer is so happy he is back in business as the phones are critical. 8:35am Customer calls and says everthing is wonderful. 11:15am PSB enters customers speed dial list for them testing remote.