With our move just over two weeks away, we have had lots of decisions to make.  One of the most important ones centered around whether or not we should move our almost 8 year old phone system.

Phone systems, like most other technology, have changed dramatically over the last 8 years. And of course our needs have changed as well, and we now have software that could integrate with our phone system for one click dialing, if we had the right capabilities.

So we determined the cost of moving the existing system, and then started exploring other options. After some research, we narrowed it down to two options - we could purchase a new VOIP phone system that would have lots of new capabilities, or we could subscribe to a monthly service from our current T1 provider that would provide pretty much the same capabilities.

To be sure the monthly service had one big advantage - no upfront cost - and we have always been happy with the service provided by this company; they have been our vendor since 2002.

But when we analyzed the numbers over the 5 year contract they wanted us to sign, we realized that we would have more than paid for a new phone system. That led us to the conculsion that we were better off to purchase a new system.

The next step was to talk to our T1 provider to make sure that the line we were ordering was exactly what we would need for the new system. And that was when the relationship started to deteriorate. The rep we had been working with suddenly became very rude and arrogant. Clearly we were not making the decision that was best for him, although it is clearly the best decision for KI.

After receiving the quote for the line we would need, we found that the price was as much as the other line with the monthly service. So, we quickly went about gathering quotes from other companies in the area that can provide a T1 for our new location.  We were able to find several options (all of them, in fact) that wer much cheaper than our first quote, and we discovered that the penalty to get out of our current 5 year contract was much less than we expected at only $632.

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that we have decided to go with another provider.

Now I am not suggesting that every company should make this same decision. If we had far fewer phones, subscribing to a monthly service would have easily been the better choice. The monthly fee would have been lower and it would take many more years to pay for a phone system. But for a company our size, we just didn't believe that it made sense.

I try diligently to learn from all of my business relationships.  The lesson in this situation is to never take my clients for granted and to always treat them with respect. If I am not helping them make the best decision for THEIR business, even when it may not be the most profitable decision for KI Technology Group, I am doing both companies a huge disservice. In the long run, helping my clients make the best decisions, will be the most profitable for KI!