Moving your office phones to VoIP: what to plan for

Your phone system is old, the maintenance contract keeps going up, and half the staff already take calls on their mobiles. Moving to a cloud VoIP system makes sense. The phones are usually the easy part. The problems tend to come from the details around them: numbers that take longer to move than expected, 911 calls that show the wrong address, or calls that break up because the internet connection was never checked.

Here is what to plan for so the switch is uneventful.

Take stock of what you have

1. List every phone number you use: main line, direct lines, fax numbers, toll-free numbers, and any numbers on alarm panels or elevators.
2. Write down how calls flow today: who answers first, the auto attendant menu, hunt groups, after-hours rules, voicemail boxes.
3. Count users, desk phones, conference phones and anyone who works remotely.
4. Find your current carrier contract and check the end date and any early termination terms.

Lines for alarms, elevators and fax machines often need special handling, so flag them early.

Plan number porting

Porting moves your existing numbers from the old carrier to the new provider. It is routine, but it is where most delays happen.

• Get a recent bill from your current carrier. The account number, service address and authorized name on the port request must match their records exactly.
• Ask the old carrier whether the account has a PIN or passcode for porting.
• Port all numbers on an account together where you can. Partial ports can be more complicated.
• Do not cancel the old service yourself before the port completes. Cancelling first can mean losing the numbers.
• Expect the new provider to give you temporary numbers so you can test before the port date.

Get 911 right

This is the part that is easy to overlook and the one that matters most. Federal rules under Kari's Law and the RAY BAUM'S Act apply to multi-line phone systems and VoIP services. In general terms, they require that users can dial 911 directly without a prefix such as 9, that a central point such as the front desk can be notified when someone calls 911, and that a dispatchable location goes with the call. A dispatchable location is the street address plus details like the floor or suite that help responders find the caller.

1. Confirm with your provider that 911 can be dialed directly from every phone.
2. Set the correct address, including suite and floor, for each phone or location in the provider's portal.
3. Set up 911 notifications to reception or an office manager if the system supports it.
4. Decide how remote and softphone users will keep their location current.
5. Update addresses whenever phones move between floors or offices.

Confirm your specific obligations with your provider and, where needed, your legal adviser. Also remember that VoIP phones stop working when power or internet goes down, so keep a mobile phone available for emergencies.

Check your internet and network

Call quality depends more on your network than on the phones.

• Bandwidth: voice uses little bandwidth per call, but a busy connection with uploads and video calls can squeeze it. Check upload speed, not just download.
• Quality of service: configure your firewall to give voice traffic priority.
• Stability: jitter and packet loss cause choppy calls more often than raw speed. Ask your provider for a network test before cutover.
• Power: desk phones often run on PoE switches. Put the switch, firewall and modem on a UPS so short outages do not drop calls.
• Backup connection: a second internet line or cellular failover keeps phones working when the main line fails.

If your office has had outages before, our post on power shutoffs and office IT covers keeping equipment running.

Run the cutover

1. Build the new system and test it with temporary numbers first: call flows, voicemail, auto attendant, mobile apps.
2. Schedule the port for a quiet time, early in the week rather than a Friday.
3. Install and label desk phones before port day.
4. Test inbound, outbound and 911 location (using the provider's test process, not a live 911 call) once the port completes.
5. Give staff a one-page guide on transfers, voicemail and the mobile app.
6. Cancel remaining old services only after every number is confirmed working.

Getting help

If you want help planning a move to VoIP, our VoIP and unified communications team can handle the porting, setup and testing, and our network solutions cover the internet and firewall side. Creative IT USA supports offices across Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire and Ventura County.