When you are trying to manage the deployment a new IP PBX system, making sure you have all of the relevant information is critical to the success of that install. Back when I was selling PBX systems to clients I put together an Excel spreadsheet to help make sure we asked all the right questions so that during the configuration and deployment we had all of the right answers. In this article I will take you through the different sections of this worksheet so that you too can use one to make your installs go as smooth as possible.
Company Info
The first worksheet is the company information page. You want to make sure you have the right person’s contact information that is going to facilitate your installation. On this page I also had a section for the type of circuit being used and who the circuit provider is. The last section has the private IP address for the server and a public IP address for remote access.
Extensions
The second sheet has the list of extensions. This will also have any DID numbers assigned to those extensions and space for an email address if they will be doing voicemail to email. I also include a space for information on their IP Phone, remote IP phones, and softphone if applicable. Like most of the data in this worksheet, I want all of this information up front. What I will do is to completely setup their entire PBX system in my office and deliver it ready to go. This makes it go much smoother than having the client involved with you while you are doing all the basic configuring.
Devices
When I did installations I did virtually 100% of the provisioning in my office and delivered the system ready to go so I would have this section filled out so I could maintain a list of which IP phone was associated with which device. Often this is more useful as reference for doing support than for doing the installation.
Trunks
It is critical that you know what kind of trunks are going to be used. This can be analog lines, PRI lines, or VOIP/SIP trunks. You should also know how many channels each trunk supports, DID’s assigned to each trunk, and who the carrier is.
Ring Groups
If you are going to configure the IP PBX with any Ring Groups, you should fill out this section and make sure that it is accurate with your client. This will solve any questions during the setup and IVR configuration phases to make sure that the groups are configured properly with the right extensions being listed for each group.
IVR
The IVR or “Digital Receptionist” is one of the most important aspects of your consulting and setup of your client’s systems. If the IVR is not easy to navigate and does not get to the place the caller is trying to get to quick, then the result can be callers getting frustrated and hanging up. Every department in the company should be involved in making sure the IVR that gets a caller to their people is designed well and optimized more minimum key presses.
Conference Rooms
If you are setting up conference rooms, you should fill out this section of the spreadsheet to make sure that it is documented well so everyone knows how to access the conference rooms properly.
Queues
Proper setup of queues can be very important to a busy call center and there are a lot of options available on most systems that support queues to customize the queues for that particular company. You should spend a lot of time working through the configuration of the queues to make sure it is going to fit the needs and requirements of your clients.
Summary
The best way to be efficient during your sales, configuration, and installation phases is to be as prepared as possible.The more you have the system and features defined before you start configuring the system the faster it will go and the fewer issues will arrive during the installation.
Click here to download the Excel file that goes with this article.