Should you use Mitel for your business phone system?

If you’re a business owner looking to update your business phone system, the Mitel phone system may be on your list. Here we look at what Mitel does (and does not do) and whether the Mitel phone system is the right service for your business.

What is the Mitel phone system?

Mitel is a leading player in unified communication systems that has several products for medium and large enterprises. The Mitel phone system is available both in the cloud and as an on-premise system.

The Mitel phone system also has a comprehensive contact centre solution. This comes with call routing, call queuing, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), CRM integration and call recording. These solutions are ideal for enterprises with a large number of employees and incoming calls.

Mitel phone system pricing

The cloud-based and on-premise systems from Mitel have different prices. You’ll have to pay an upfront, one-time fee for the on-premise system. For the cloud-hosted system, MiCloud Connect, Mitel charges monthly fees per user.

There are three plans for the cloud-based system. Users have the flexibility to mix and match plans. This allows you to choose plans for the specific needs of employees instead of selecting blanket features for all employees. These are the details of the plans:

The Essential plan

• $20.99 per user per month.

• Audio and video conferencing for eight users at a time.

• Four users can use web conferencing with desktop sharing.

The Premier plan

• $26.59 per user per month.

• 25 users can participate in audio conferencing, desktop sharing and video conferencing.

• A maximum of 12 users can use video conferencing at a time.

• On-demand call recording and voicemail transcription.

• The plan comes with Salesforce integration.

The Elite plan

• Starts at $38.49 per user per month.

• Audio conferencing and web conferencing with desktop sharing for up to 100 users.

• Video conferencing for up to 24 participants at a time.

• Archiving, always-on call recording and access to an operator.

Call centre services are charged extra, ranging from $12 to $20 per user.

What business features does Mitel offer?

The Mitel phone system is called a unified communication system because it comes with a suite of tools for collaboration, calling, mobility administration and contact centre management.

MiCloud Connect features for enterprises

• Audio conferencing

• Instant messaging

• Video chat

• Desktop sharing

• Caller ID

• Auto-attendant

• Call waiting

• Call transfer

• Call forwarding

• Speed dial

• Call blocking

• Call screening

• Voicemail-to-email

• Hunt groups

• Group paging

• Message-waiting notifications

• Intercoms

• Ring tone personalisation

Users can make and receive calls through Mitel’s iOS and Android apps for mobile phones. The apps also allow them to check their voicemail and hold conference calls. The dashboard makes it easy to manage communication.

Users also get a softphone with the app. This allows them to make and receive calls from any connected device wherever they are. Mitel’s contact centre for medium and large enterprises comes with enhanced features to help manage a large number of calls.

Mitel contact centre features for enterprises

• Intelligent routing

• Real-time and historical reporting

• IVRs

• Speech analytics

• Power diallers

• Workforce management

• Advanced voice services

• Artificial intelligence

The limitations of the Mitel phone system for business

While there are several benefits to the Mitel phone system, it does come with certain disadvantages, particularly for small businesses and startups. For starters, it’s expensive.

The Essential plan, the one most suited for businesses on a budget, doesn’t come with adequate features. There are limits on both audio and video conferencing. You have to upgrade your subscription if you want to include more than eight people.

Compared to its Mitel alternatives, this is a low limit.

The second problem is complexity. If you want to save on subscription costs and deliver the right features to the right user, you’ll have to mix and match several plans.

You need to figure out whether a particular remote employee wants desktop sharing or if someone else wants group paging. As a small business owner, this can be needlessly complex and take up a lot of your time.

What you want is a business phone system that’s affordable, rich with features and exceptionally easy to manage.

Why Chalkboard is a top alternative to the Mitel phone system

Here’s a phone system designed to meet the unique needs of small businesses, startups and freelancers. Rated among the top second number apps, Chalkboard has everything you need to manage and optimise your business communication.

You get a second phone number. Now you have a second phone number that you can use exclusively for work and share confidently with customers and vendors.

You can organise contacts. Your work contacts will be separate from your personal contacts through lists.

Your team can share numbers. With number-sharing, there will always be someone to field calls from customers or clients.

You get group broadcast. Send marketing messages to groups with broadcast SMS - no more manually typing each message.

You get auto-reply. Chalkboard will send a pre-written message to calls that you might miss through its auto-reply feature.

You can easily manage your phone. There are no confusing plans and no need to mix and match features.

Download Chalkboard today. It’s the affordable and feature-rich alternative to the Mitel phone system that your business needs.