If you are installing a telephone system in a new office or facility that is not yet occupied, then count your lucky stars that you are not responsible for cutting over an existing phone system to a new one, or even to a new carrier as well.
Something as critical to business continuity as an existing phone system requires very detailed planning and project management, with a good deal of input from 3rd parties such as the system vendor and BT, and possibly a cabling system supplier and handset vendor too. The more 3rd parties involved, the more dependencies exist and the greater the possibility of something going wrong.
Things To Include
A successful plan may have many more activities than this rather simple list. The devil is always in the detail and walking through the plan with all stakeholders involved in the delivery is extremely important so that each understand what the others are doing and delivering, and where the interactions and dependencies lie. Frequent meetings are a good idea, where progress and blockers can be brought to the table and discussed openly.
- BT line delivery & testing
- Cabling to desk phones, fax, printer, Wi-Fi router etc.
- Handset delivery, installation and testing
- Testing the new system (system testing)
- Training plan for staff and for super-users
- Training plan for system admin (if applicable)
- Cut-over testing
- Cut-over plan on the cut-over day
- Back out plan on cut-over day
- Testing & success criteria (e.g. zero major issues + up to 5 minor issues = success)
Build In A Rapid Back Out Plan
Let’s start at the end of the process. The big day has dawned and, probably very late in the evening or very early in the morning, feverish activity is underway to make the switch from old to new. All the necessary changes have been made and it’s time to throw the switch and see if everything works. Your plan has allowed for maybe some minor features or elements not working, and that is acceptable, but the big things have to operate correctly. Incoming calls must come through as expected and outgoing calls must occur smoothly.
But there is a glitch and something major is not working. The engineers have tried all they can to resolve it without success. Time is running out. You need to put everything back the way it was so that business can operate from the start of the business day. You may try again tomorrow or at some agreed future date. Now it is critical that everything can revert successfully to the “before” configuration. This, of course, also requires thorough testing to ensure it is working as expected.
Training Always Takes Longer Than You Think
This is especially true when senior managers are included! Classroom style training, if that is the chosen option, needs to be augmented by some self-training materials. It’s always a good idea to have at least one nominated expert within your staff (super user), who will take responsibility for learning the system in-depth and being a referral point for queries and requests for small one-on-one training sessions on specific topics.
Engaging Professional Help
The above is a rough outline of how you might approach installing a new business telephone system. Of course, if you procure your system through GPS Telecom, our experts can take care of all the details on your behalf. That adds an extra layer of risk mitigation because it’s something we have done many times before. Contact us today and tell us your requirements. We will let you know what the best system and configuration is to meet your needs.
