Decisions

I really get miffed when I have thought long and hard about a decision, examined all the angles, weighed the pros and cons, slept on it, done the research, and finally conclude the decision with confidence, and someone completely disagrees with me with about 10 seconds of consideration.

I take it as more of an insult that they realize.

Recently I restructured how my phone system works at work. I could have attacked this a number of ways, either through equipment, and or software. My goal was cost savings and efficiency. I had many hurdles to overcome and ideas to think through.

What I ended up doing after months of research and consideration was drop the traditional land lines and go with Internet based incoming and outgoing Voice over IP. I saved about 75% over what I was doing with Land lines and increased the efficiency of what I was trying to accomplish.

I built the system myself using off the shelf products like Vonage, Onebox, and scanners.

I made sure that I built in safety backups into the system.

Anytime I discussed this idea with others, they would tell me I was crazy, or this wouldn’t work, like I was an idiot for even trying to do what I proposed.

I tested my new system along side of the old system for two and a half months. On September 1, I switched over to my homemade business system and I have accomplished more than I set out to do.

My costs are in line with what I thought and now all my voice, fax and voicemail are handled exactly as I tell it, they are delivered anywhere I want them delivered. I choose email so I can be a virtual office at any location.

Each person can tweak their on preferences.

The system has worked flawlessly.

I could literally hire anyone now from anywhere in North America, and plug them in as easy as I could if they were in the office beside me.

This opens my opportunity for part time help.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! VoIP is the way to go! I think that is great you were able to even do it and be cost effective in building the system as I know it is not cheap. And your options are just awesome.

Logzie said...

Impressive!! I LOVE technology! It's technology like this that will make our 1 year RV trip possible. Chuck will be able to work anywhere! Congrats! You did good! :0)