How To Buy your Panasonic Phone System
Whether you’re a first time buyer or just replacing an older system, now is the time to take a moment to consider what your business needs from a telephone system.Your Panasonic telephone and voicemail systems will last a good long time. So the last thing we would want you to do, is make a less than well thought out purchase. On this page you’ll find a few things we think you should consider before you buy. Don’t worry about flipping back and forth on the site to see which systems have what you need. We’ve provided links for that at the bottom of the page. In addition, you’ll find a table showing the capacities of the Panasonic telephone systems. We recommend that you jot down your answers, as you go, to the question you find relevant.
Framing your business
Where are we now with respect to our telephone communications? Are we down sizing, or growing? Is that likely to continue? How are most of our calls initiated? Do we make the calls, or do our customers call us? When calls come in, do the phones ring or do they go through a voicemail system first? Is that how we want it, or just how it’s always been done? If you’re a small business, do you need the appearance of a large company? Will I be answering all the calls myself, or will the voicemail system be routing them instead?The intention here is not to frustrate or bore you, but to get you to take a fresh look at how your sales, customer service, administrative and other departments can best utilize your new Panasonic telephone system to be more productive. So go department-by-department, if need be, and write down what would be optimum. In a year or two people will applaud your vision! Just remember us when it happens *wink*
How many telephone lines do I need?
Right now, how many telephone lines am I buying from the telephone company? Is that enough? Can I do without one or two? If your company is growing, you need to buy a system that can grow with you. It’s important to have a little expansion room here. If you have 3 lines now, and you’re growing, don’t buy the KX-TD308. It isn’t expandable beyond 3 lines. On the other hand, if you have two lines now, then adding a third line would be a 50% increase in your line capacity!We use this example only as a guide. Start with the number of lines you are currently using, and factor in the growth or down sizing you see coming over the next couple of years.Tip!If you’re a company that doesn’t send or receive many faxes over the course of a day, consider putting that fax line on the phone system. The system can be programmed to only ring the extension you’ve hooked to the fax. Because the fax line is now going through your telephone system, you can use it, in addition to your regular lines, to make calls on from your desktop telephone. Remember, you’ll have to add the fax line to the total number of lines you’ll need the Panasonic telephone system to accommodate (3 voice lines + fax line = 4 total lines on the system). Now, if you’re fax is busy all day, then this isn’t a good idea.
How many extensions will I need?
The number of extensions you’ll need will depend on a couple of factors. In short, it’ll break down like this: Number of Panasonic telephones + analog devices (credit card machines, modems, faxes, Pitney Bowes machines and/or cordless telephones) + number of Panasonic voicemail ports = the total number of extension you’ll need. That’s the short answer! Now, here are a couple of things to watch out for, while you’re counting those things on your fingers. If you’re buying a Panasonic analog telephone system (KX-TAW848, KX-TA624 or KX-TA1232), each voicemail port connected to the system will require an extension. On the other hand, the Panasonic digital telephone systems (KX-TD308, KX-TD816-6 and KX-TD1232-6) are more efficient. Because of their digital nature, they only require one (1) extension for every two (2) voicemail ports. So if, for instance, you�re buying a TVS50 (2 voicemail ports), you will only need one (1) extension to make two (2) ports work. As with lines, you want to make sure to buy a Panasonic telephone system that will meet your FUTURE extension requirements.One more thing. Remember I asked you to consider all those analog devices. Well here’s where the Panasonic digital system earns its keep. With the Panasonic analog telephone systems, (Those systems beginning with the letters KX-TA) you have to make sure you have a separate extension for every device you intend to connect to it. When you buy a Panasonic digital telephone system (System beginning with the letters KX-TD) you get some thing special. An XDP port with every extension. The XDP ports allow you to connect any single line device to it. Yep, that right. It means that on the same extension you can have a 7400 series telephone (KXT7436,KXT7453,KXT7425,KXT7431 or KXT7420) and any one of those analog devices we mentioned earlier. Credit card machines, modems, faxes, Pitney Bowes machines, cordless telephones, or nearly any thing you can plug into your phone line at home. That’s like getting two-for-one!
What phones should I buy?
That question is going to be decided largely by whether you buy a Panasonic Analog (KX-TA) or Digital (KX-TD) system. If you buy a Panasonic KX-TA (analog) system, then you CANNOT buy the Panasonic digital telephones (KXT7436,KXT7453,KXT7425,KXT7431 or KXT7420), they just will not work with the Panasonic Analog systems (KX-TA624 or KX-TA1232). Still, there are plenty of analog telephones to choose from. You have the entire 7700 series telephone line to pick from. If you choose a Panasonic digital system (KX-TD308, KX-TD816-6 and KX-TD1232-6), then you have your pick of any of the 7400 (digital telephones)and 7700 series telephones. We strongly recommend that you purchase at least one display telephone. If you ever need to program the system with a telephone, it will be nearly impossible without a display phone. This is especially true of the KX-TA 625-5 and KX-TA1232 analog telephone systems. The KX-TA624-5 and KX-TA1232 telephone systems can ONLY be programmed by using a system telephone. The KX-TD system can be programmed by using a system phone, but are more commonly, and easily programmed with a laptop or PC.
