Research shows that the majority of SMBs have low awareness of the technology trends in business phone systems, and most are not utilizing advanced phone features.
The survey, conducted by Hanover Research and sponsored by Windstream’s Allworx company, found that the top five phone features used most by SMBs are: 3-way calling (60 percent), intercom (42 percent), conference call bridges (41 percent), music on hold (40 percent) and calling other locations using extensions (37 percent).
And, despite the rise of email, video, and social media, 74 percent said that voice communication remains extremely or very important to their business operations. The top five most desired phone features by SMBs are: voicemail as e-mail attachments (38 percent), remote desk phones (25 percent), music on hold (25 percent), 3-way calling (24 percent), and mobile client for the desk phone (24 percent).
Also, common terminology such as IP telephony, hosted PBX, IP PBX, virtual PBX, SIP trunks or unified communications were considered obscure to SMB owners.
It presents a big challenge for channel partners to educate end users as replacement cycles kick into high gear. Nearly one in two SMBs plan to evaluate a new business phone system in the near future – with 86 percent of them planning to do so within the next three years. Sixty-four percent of them cited old or outdated voice equipment as the primary reason.
“Twenty years into the advent of the VoIP technology, business phone systems have become more intelligent and capable than ever before,” said Chris Hasenauer, vice president and general manager of Allworx. “These results tell us that there is a real opportunity to help educate SMBs on how they can optimize their business phone systems to increase efficiency, boost productivity, and do more with less.”
