Phone System Services -Chicago-Ridge, IL 60415

Whether you need a legacy phone system maintained, or an entirely new communications system for multiple offices, Andromeda Technology Solutions is the answer you have been looking for. As our expertise also includes complete data network solutions, you can rest assured that we can fully integrate a communications system that will best leverage your existing or future IT infrastructure.

In many cases, your telephone system is the first thing people will experience when dealing with your business.

• Does it show your company in a good light?
• Is it set up so your clients have a good experience?
• Does it help maximize employee productivity?

Let us show you how a phone system should be set up!

Experience the simplicity of having an experienced company to handle all aspects of your communication systems, letting you focus on running your business.

Contact us or fill out the Request form on this page now to ask us to contact you!

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Hybrid PBX and IP-based Phone Systems

We support a host of major phone systems—from Avaya, NEC, Panasonic to Toshiba— and are a certified Panasonic dealer for both a traditional PBX system, as well as a true IP-based VoIP system. The beauty of these systems lies in their very extensive feature set (over 800 features) and their mix-and-match capabilities. Each system can mix analog, digital and IP phone sets to match almost any application. Also, each system has extensive functionality built-in for incorporating branch offices, work-at-home employees and other remote workers.

We spend a great deal of time understanding all your requirements, so we can select the system and functions that are exactly what you need.

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The Phones Become the Network

If you are considering an IP-based telephone system, it is important to understand these systems are more data systems than phone systems. Unlike a traditional PBX system, a VoIP system puts a significant burden on your data network, and requires specific equipment and configuration to ensure everything is running properly.

Many traditional telephone service companies lack the skills to properly install and maintain a VoIP system. Andromeda Technology Solutions excels in all aspects of voice and data, and will ensure you get the system that is right for you.

Whether Cloud-based, Hosted/virtual PBX, or completely on-premises, we have the knowledge AND experience to guide you and implement your voice communication system to perfection.

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Replacement of Legacy Phone Systems

We have many years of experience upgrading/replacing legacy phones systems from: ComDial, Nortel, Toshiba/Mitel, and Samsung just to name a few. If you would like to experience service from a truly customer-focused organization, call us when you are ready to replace and upgrade your existing legacy telephone system.

			KX-TA KX-NCP KX-TDA KS-TDE
			IP Office Definity Magix Legend Partner
			Aspire Elite IPK I-Series DS/DSX

AndroPedia Tech Library

As part of our service, it is important to keep our client-partners well informed on Telephone system developments, news, and best practices. Here is just a sampling of typical items from our AndroPedia^SM library archive:

There will most likely come a time when you decide you want to change service providers for your business internet and telephone.

That makes sense.

In fact, we would suggest that you audit your phone service and bills at least once a year if not every 6 months. (For more on auditing your phone bills – read here).

The telecom industry term for the date you go from one service to the next is the “cutover date”. Basically, this is the day that you cut service with your old provider and begin service with your new provider.

You’d think this is as simple as the switch of a button but there are actually a lot of ways that a cutover can cause trouble for you and your business.

The last thing you want is for a cutover issue to mean loss of profit or productivity in your office. After all, every minute your phones are down costs you.

With this in mind, we thought you would enjoy a quick checklist to ensure your telephone service cutover goes as smooth as possible.

Andromeda Technology Solutions Telephone Service Cutover Checklist: 6 Things to Do Before Your Cutover Date

1- Bring your IT/Telecom Service Provider Up to Speed

First things first, the moment you start thinking about changing telephone/internet service providers; you should get your IT group involved.

A good vendor will guide you through the process of preparing for your telephone service cutover date.

A GREAT Technology Partner will guide you through the prep for your cutover but they will also help guide you in the right direction when it comes to your service levels and providers.

There are a lot of important factors to consider when choosing a telephone/internet provider.

• Customer Service Reputation
• Bandwidth options
• Type of service
• Availability in your area
• Impact on other technologies and departments in your business

It is important to get your IT/Telephone Solution Provider involved for your cutover but it is just as important to get them involved as soon as you make the decision to shop service providers.

This will allow you to avoid a lot of headaches and it will also prepare you properly for everything you’ve got to get done.

Keeping your technology partners in the loop is one of the best ways to steer clear of speedbumps.

2- Notify your current vendor that you’re switching service.

This one is very simple. Once you’ve decided to switch service providers, you need to notify your existing telecom service provider.

Most companies require 30 days’ notice or they will charge cancellation fees.

You’ll also want to make sure you aren’t under a contract. If you find that you are still under contract, you’ll need to figure out what types of penalties or charges the existing vendor has in place for early termination.

As a general rule, you always want to be aware of your contract dates. Even if you aren’t switching vendors, your rates might rise if you aren’t under a long term contract with your vendor. This is best practice and ensures you aren’t being overcharged for your services.

3- Get a “cut sheet” from your current service provider.

The cut sheet is a list of all of the necessary work prior to your telephone service cutover. This is a great way to make sure you have all of your ducks in a row before the official telephone service cutover date.

Once you have the cut sheet you need to make sure and get a copy of it to whoever manages your telephone system.

This sheet includes any equipment you’ll need, programming needs as well as a list of all the numbers you need ported over.

By providing this to your technology partner you ensure that they can schedule technicians to get the required work done prior to the big day.

4- Check your IT closet or equipment room out.

Changing service providers may require some new equipment. Make sure to find out what space that will require and ensure that you have the space available.

Be clear on who will install the new equipment and where you want it as well.

5- Map out your current setup

You’ll want to map out all of your existing set up.

Make sure you have a list of all phone numbers and extensions.

This is something you can do yourself or you can request that your phone system vendor does this for you. They will dive a little deeper and check for dial tones, testing ports and checking for local & long distance capability.

Just be sure to request that your vendor provides you a full report of your findings.

6- Get the date on your calendar and notify anyone who might be impacted

It might sound obvious but you want to make sure that everyone knows your cutover date.

Andromeda recommends that you let all employees know the date and time. Additionally, you’ll probably want to schedule and send out a few emails to customers in case there is any service disruption.

Communication is key with these types of projects.

Customers won’t be upset that they can’t reach you by phone if they know that you can be reached via email or other communications.

This will also make sure that everyone is prepared just in case the cutover doesn’t go as smooth as planned. If your phones are down for longer than expected, you’ve covered your bases on the front side and shouldn’t feel a backlash from employees or customers for the temporary disruption of phone service.

As you’ve probably noticed – most of these steps and the checklist recommends that you communicate with your telephone system vendor. These projects are pretty simple but can easily go wrong if everyone isn’t on the same page.

If you are thinking about switching phone service providers make sure to get in touch with whoever manages your phone system.

You’ll be glad you did.

The post 6 Things You Need To Prepare Before You Change Telephone Service Providers: Your Telecom Cutover Checklist appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

Have you ever spoken with a telecom salesman? If you have, you probably noticed they speak in what appears to be code. PRI . . . POTS lines . . . PBX . .  .VOIP? What does any of this even mean?

Lucky for you, we decoded some of the most common telecom acronyms so that even you can speak phone system.

 Most Popular Telecom Acronyms

• VoIP – (Voice over Internet Protocol) is an alternative way of making phone calls. VoIP transmits the sounds you make over the Internet. There are different styles of VoIP systems but the two most common are cloud based and on premise.
• SIP – (Session Initiation Protocol) is an industry standard method of achieving VoIP.  Telephone Systems and many communications devices now have the ability to perform SIP protocol by way of trunk access (dial tone), video, etc.
• PRI – (Primary Rate Interface) a multi-channel digital circuit that brings 24 lines of telephone system communication for incoming/outgoing dial tone. Essentially, it allows multiple inbound and outbound calls at one time. This is often a less expensive approach for a company that has more than 10 analog (POTS) lines.
• PBX (Private Branch Exchange) This is typically a physical box on location at your business that holds all the programming required to make calls, transfer calls, host Voicemail and many other key functions.
• POTS – (Plain Old Telephone Service) also known as analog telephone lines.
• IP-PBX – (Internet Protocol-Private Branch Exchange) is a telephone system that integrates with Internet functionality such as VoIP and SIP services.
• PSTN – (Public Switched Telephone Network) is known as traditional telephone lines.
• ISDN – (Integrated Services Digital Network) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the PSTN.

More questions? No worries, check out our Telecom Phone Systems page and let us help answer some of your additional questions! Or reach out to us for a conversation about your needs.

The post Phone Systems Decoded – 8 Commonly Used Telecom Acronyms & What They Actually Mean appeared first on Andromeda Technology Solutions.

One of the more common complaints people have about mobile devices is the fact that it's still harder than it should be to do certain kinds of work. Manipulating spreadsheets on a mobile device, for example, can be a lesson in frustration. If that's something you've experienced firsthand, and if you're a Microsoft 365 user (Microsoft Teams in particular), then the company's most recent announcement related to Teams is apt to make you smile.

The company has decided to make its new Microsoft Lists app available as an add-on to its Teams collaboration and video-conferencing app.

This change makes the new app available to all Microsoft 365 Commercial and Government Community users who make use of Teams. That makes it available to some 75 million users, according to statistics provided by the company.

Microsoft Lists is a team-based app for tracking information. Like a spreadsheet, data can be organized in rows and columns. The Lists app provides additional tweaks to make data manipulation and organization easier, making it a highly customizable collaboration tool.

Key capabilities of the new app include:

• All user actions on the list are audited and available in the security and compliance center.
• The ability to have a channel conversation about any list item
• All standard list features that you can access in SharePoint web, including view formatting, Quick Edit, export to Excel, sorting, filtering, column types, and the like
• Importing existing team lists as new tabs in the app
• New list creation, either from scratch, from templates, or from Excel table data. The aplp comes with eight standard templates and three industry specific ones (Loans, Incidents and Patients)

Ansuman Acharya, a Product Manager in Microsoft's Healthcare division had this to say about the move:

"The vision of the Lists app in Teams is to bring all the collaboration and communication modalities to lists and list items, so it is easy to get work done."

That's good news indeed, and a breath of fresh air for Office 365 users. Kudos to Microsoft for the change.

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