What three weeks of waiting costs a business

The usual path

Switching phone systems, in most businesses, looks like this: a request for a quote, a meeting, a quote you have to chase, an installation date "in three weeks," a technician who comes on site, then a day when nothing works during the cutover. Between the decision and the first call, a month often goes by.

What the month costs

• The branch that opens on an announced date and whose phone doesn't ring on day one. Not every customer who calls that day calls back.
• The move that has to line up with the phones, and slips because they slip.
• The new hire waiting for an extension, or working from a personal cell phone in the meantime — the number their customers will keep.
• The old system paid for one more month, because the cancellation waits for the cutover.
• The manager running one more project instead of doing their job.

None of those lines is on the quote. All of them cost more than the price difference between two providers.

Why it takes so long

Because a phone system has always been built by hand: a server to order, software to install, trunks to activate, menus to record, extensions to create, one at a time. Each step waits for the one before it, and each one waits for someone to be available.

What has changed

When the build is automated — dedicated server started, system installed and hardened, trunks and numbers configured, menus recorded by voice synthesis, backups and monitoring enabled — the system exists in under an hour. What remains is what depends on you: your answers about who uses the phone and how calls should flow, and porting your numbers, which takes as long as your current provider takes.

In other words, the new system can be ready, tested and in service on temporary numbers while the port runs its course. The cutover becomes a date on a calendar, not a day without phones.

That is how we build every system, after a quote — and soon from our online shop.

The question to ask your next provider

"Between signing and the first call, what happens, and how long does it take?" If the answer starts with "it depends on the technician," you know what you are going to pay.