Office telephone systems can be equipped with literally hundreds of features for
switching calls and directing traffic. Phone system dealers estimate, however,
that most companies never use 90 percent of their telephone features. Instead
of comparing features on a one-to-one basis, you should examine how your
phone system is used. Limit your feature search and evaluation to only those
options that will improve the workflow in the office. 
     
  Some of the most popular features that are standard in many systems include:

An auto-attendant is the recorded message that answers your phones and instructs
callers how to reach the person or department they are looking for. If you have a
high volume of calls, this may be important - or you may value having a real person
answer every call.    

Conferencing features vary widely. Consider how often your staff needs to make
conference calls, and how many different people need to call in. If the conferencing
features you need aren't readily available, there are other options for
conducting teleconferences that you can purchase separately.

Instead of paying for features you'll never use, consider how you use phone 
systems for your business and make sure to get options you need the most.

Music-on-hold is fairly self-explanatory - in most systems you simply plug in a
source of music. You can help callers find the people they need with dial by
name, dial by extension, or dial from directory services.

Phone sets themselves have more standard features, as well. Display phones have
a small screen that shows information such as the name and extension of an internal
caller, the duration of call, and in some cases, caller ID. Speaker  phones
are familiar fixtures in many conference rooms, but are also now standard on most
new hand sets. Speaker phones can be half-duplex, which means that only one
person on the call can be heard at a time, or full-duplex,  which lets both parties
talk simultaneously, like a regular phone. Some phones also have a 'listen only'
mode for speaker phone, which is useful for monitoring a conference call or while
on hold.

With more feature-rich phone systems, voicemail is sometimes included as part of
the system. However it is a fairly expensive option if it is not included. If you already
have a voicemail system, talk to your vendor about its compatibility with the system
you are considering. Or if you're shopping for voicemail, take a look at our.

Although having the right features is important, even more critical is making sure they
are easy to access. Because most employees devote very little time to learning how
to use a phone system, you should make sure that using the most common functions
is extremely simple and intuitive.

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