Evolution of my small business communication systems

About a month ago I launched a project  to update my basic business communication systems. I took my time and looked at options and was surprised how complicated it was to accomplish these basic tasks.

The goals were:

  • Simplify and improve voice telephone quality
  • integrate SMS and MMX texting for desktop use and automatic inclusion in CRM system client contact logs
  • Diversify among providers to increase reliability in the event of crash, signal failure, or future change in services
  • Lower overall costs.

Accomplished so far:

  • Use of wireless headset (Jabra 45h about $65) improved the quality of voice calls
  • Ported of expensive old number from cellular to Google Voice where it now forwards to my cell phone at no additional cost
  • Reduced Verizon Wireless data plan by $65 per month with only one line now

Still to accomplish:

  • Forwarding of an otherwise unused business number to a phone service without a large ongoing fee. Alternately, I might open a Google Fi or Ooma account. (I ruled out RingCentral and similar services as too expensive for the value received).
  • Manually entering clients’ text numbers as email addresses with domain extension (for example 8562379199@vzwpix.com) into my contact list

Still under consideration:

  • Upgrading to .CPA domain and email for increased security at a cost of $225 per year (more importantly, the public perception of increased security)
I didn’t realize until this month that the built-in microphone in this headset delivers higher quality result than the microphone in a hand held smartphone.