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Installing a second phone line in a small office can be a huge hassle. First, there's the price: It costs close to $1,500 to buy a new desktop station and add wiring. There's also the loss of mobility: You traditionally can't connect a cordless phone to multiline Centrex systems and thus remain tethered to your desk. For some lucky entrepreneurs, things are changing.
Siemens CommunicationDevices in Richardson, Texas, markets a cordless, multiuser phone system that enables entrepreneurs to wander around their offices with a cordless handset, leaving them free to oversee employee progress and remain available for customer calls. What's more, up to eight employees, using cordless handsets with their own extension numbers, can make calls on the wireless system.
Priced at $399, the Gigaset 2420 package includes one cordless handset and desk station. The system boasts such features as paging, speakerphone, caller ID and a caller directory. Additional handsets cost $125. The product is sold through the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog and retail stores in Beverly Hills, California; Chicago; and New York City.
Gene Koprowski has covered the tech industry for 10 years and writes a monthly computing column for "The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition." Contact him at 74203.1677@compuserve.com
On Hold?
Your business is on the fast track, but is your phonesystem?
If your business recently hit the fast lane, one thing probablyhasn't kept pace: your office telephone system. Entrepreneursdon't always upgrade their systems, says Michael Centrella,founder of Merlot Communications Inc. The Bethel, Connecticut,consulting company recently completed an 18-month study ofentrepreneurs' phone systems. Here are some findings:
- Small businesses with systems older than 5 years oftendon't have features consumers expect such as voice mail andhold music.
- Small businesses often order extra lines, rather than figureout how to get maximum efficiency from their systems.
- Entrepreneurs would benefit from an audit of their phones,faxes and PCs.
Speedy Delivery
Getting advanced digital access.
You've historically been at the mercy of your phone companywhen asking for advanced, digital services. Either your carrier hadhigh-speed, digital lines in your neighborhood or it didn't. Toworsen matters, there was nothing you could do--new phone companiescouldn't afford the cost of laying fiber optic cables in everycity neighborhood to service a smattering of small or homebasedbusinesses.
But guess what? Smaller phone companies are starting to offerhigh-speed, digital subscriber line (DSL) technology toentrepreneurs. One firm, New York City Transwire Communications,offers the service to East Coast small businesses and is planning anational expansion.
Using an 1MB modem, the company provides outgoing and incomingtelecommunications services at 17 times the speed of the 56K analogmodem, Transwire's Dennis Kruse says. Currently, 200 companieshave signed up for the service, according to Kruse.
The package costs $199 per month and includes a 24-hour-a-day,seven-day-a-week online connection, an e-mail address and othertelecommunications services.
Contact Sources
Siemens Communications Devices, (972) 997-7300, http://www.siemenscordless.com
Transwire Communications, Schwartz Co., 230 Third Ave.,Waltham, MA 02154
