Office Phone System
This article brings you to a journey of office phone system transformation within our own company.
In the beginning, there was only 2 person:
| 1997 – 1998 (Panasonic) | Functionality |
 |
1. Single line phone 2. Caller ID 3. Answering machine 4. Recording voicemail 5. 1 Phone shared among 2 person |
With small expansion, our director sponsored an old keyphone which works well for small group of 4. But we have no capability to control or program the system. Just plug and pray… it works!
| 1998 – 2002 (Kenda 616 series) | Functionality |
 |
1. Digital phone 2. Able to transfer extension 3. 2 Singtel line with hunting 4. Able to cater to 6 person in office 5. No Caller ID |
Unfortunately Kenda fails us. Unable to get support, we venture into Panasonic phone system and started to learn phone programming.
| 2002 – 2003 (Panasonic TA308) | Functionality |
 |
1. Digital phone 2. Able to transfer extension 3. Integration with magnetic door 4. Integration with door phone 5. Caller ID 6. Self programmable with manual 7. Starts implementing for customers |
In 2003, we bought into Automobile Megamart building infrastructure including building IT and telephone network equipment and devices. Started serving whole building on IT infrastruction and telephone system, connecting all the car dealers in a single network of IT and communication.
| 2003 – 2009 (Ericsson MD100) | Functionality |
 |
1. 6 unit of MD100 2. Up to 6000 extension 3. Support Automobile Megamart building 4. Car dealers can call each other via extension 5. ISDN-30 with 400 DID numbers 6. Allow car dealer companies to subscribe to phone service |
In 2009, we moved out of AML and move into our very own office unit. We drop ISDN-30 to ISDN-10 and from 400 DID numbers to only 40 numbers since we no longer serving the building.
| 2009 – 2012 (Panasonic TDA100) | Functionality |
 |
1. Single unit for 20 extensions 2. Able to do programming 3. ISDN-10 with 40 DID numbers 4. Integrate with door access 5. Multi-department group ring |
Finally with fibre broadband roll out, we also launch our very own IPPBX on SMESUITE Server hardware. This liberated us from traditional phone system to an open system which we are no longer bound by location. Work from home and support branch in Malaysia and Philippines begins. We started introducing IPPBX to customers.
| 2012 – NOW (IP-PBX Solution deployed) |
 |
| 1. IP-PBX on Server with ISDN and SIP Trunk 2. Unlimited extension and Singapore/Malaysia inter-connection 3. Use with phone set, softphone on laptop and mobile phone app 4. Able to have extension on mobile phone for traveling 5. Voicemail sent to email 6. Interactive Voice Response 7. Work-from-home and anywhere available |
In 2018, we drop ISDN totally and cut over to SIP trunk saving us about $400 per month on Singtel bills. All past baggage were dropped and we have finally move to the new era of communications completely.
Traditional phone system no long has to be traditional. It has become revolutionary in the way we operate our business. We hope from our sharing, you will also be inspired to liberate your business from the traditional wires that entangle your business.
Talk to us, if you want ideas to digitise your business operations the way we do. Be it in business operations software or in communication technology, we are sure to make IT simple for you.
Please feel free to contact us at 6589 8878.
