How to choose a new telephony provider


Analysis

June 25, 2020

When it comes to choosing a new supplier, there are a variety of criteria a prospective buyer will take into account, such as brand reputation, pricing, and the technical solution to name a few. Invariably, size is also on the list, as it is often seen as an indicator of the provider's ability to deliver. But is size an accurate indicator and what does a buyer really mean when asking about size?

In our experience, What most buyers are really asking isn’t, “How many employees do you have,” but rather “Are you able to meet our needs,” and “What are the risks of choosing you?” Even these questions need to be broken down further in order to arrive at the answers needed to make an informed decision. When you get to the crux of the matter, the most common reasons buyers ask about a company’s size are to find out:

    • Do you have people with the right skills?
    • Do you have experience dealing with similar businesses?
    • Do you have the global coverage; both technically and resource-wise?
    • Have you delivered a similar project, to my timescales before?
    • Are you financially stable?
    • Are you part of a bigger group and what influence does that exert on the business?
    • Is the solution you are offering me part of your core business strategy?
    • Are there conflicting priorities within your business that might affect your ability to deliver?
    • How susceptible are you to market changes, and how quickly can you adapt to them?
    • How quickly can you deliver?
    • Are there factors outside of your control that might affect your offering?

There are many more, but the conclusion we arrive at is that ‘size’ as a factor on its own can be very misleading. The real question(s) should address the supplier’s ability to deliver a product or service that meets your requirements, while keeping risks to a minimum.

Tackling each of these questions individually provides much deeper insight into whether a provider would be right for your business than simply asking about their size. For example, you could ask Pure IP:

Do we have experience dealing with similar businesses?

Almost certainly! Our extensive client base sees us managing telephony for some of the world’s largest multi-national organizations across a wide variety of different industries in the public and private sectors.

Do we have global coverage?

Yes. In fact, with coverage in over 90 countries and full PSTN replacement services in 38, we provide services in more countries than any other vendor – regardless of how big they are.

How quickly can we deliver services?

Our global team of dedicated voice experts have deep ties to network providers all over the world, and work around the clock to deliver on our customers’ projects. It’s just one of the reasons we’re up to 20 times faster than other carriers.

What about our finances?

With no debts, no shareholders, and no parent company to appease, we are both financially stable and completely in control of our own business strategy. We also own our own infrastructure, which, taken together, means we can adapt quickly to change and customize our technical solutions, level of support, and billing for our customers.

Is enterprise telephony our primary mission?

Since Pure IP was created over 16 years ago, our sole focus has been providing enterprise voice services – it is the technical core around which the business has grown.

When entering into any new partnership, businesses need to evaluate the organization to ensure that they can deliver a service that meets their needs with minimal risks. But is size really the right metric? We would argue not.

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Alessandra

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