Evaluation framework
12 Questions Every IT Director Should Answer Before Switching Phone Systems
Most phone system evaluations fail because the wrong questions got asked, not because someone picked the wrong logo. Use this list to smoke out gaps before they bite you at renewal.
- What is your true all-in cost per seat today, including every add-on? Seat math hides fast when recording, SMS, international pools, and contact-center seats each carry their own line.
- Does your current platform meet your industry's compliance requirements natively, or through third-party add-ons? If you are regulated, you need a clear data path for retention and legal hold, not a partner marketplace scavenger hunt.
- What is the financially backed uptime SLA your current provider offers in writing? "Five nines" talk only matters if credits or remedies actually attach.
- How long would a full outage last before it materially impacts operations? Turn the SLA math into hours per year your business can live with.
- Can your IT team migrate to a new system in under 30 days without production downtime? Migration speed matters as much as which platform you pick.
- Does your phone system integrate natively with your existing Microsoft 365 environment? Real M365 alignment saves help-desk time. Thin integrations do not.
- Is call recording centrally managed and audit-retrievable on demand? If retrieval means opening tickets across three vendors, you own that risk.
- What happens to your phone system if your internet goes down? Forwarding, survivable gateways, and mobile failover should be spelled out, not assumed.
- How many vendors does your current phone setup depend on? Carrier, CPaaS, recording, analytics, and handsets can each be its own contract.
- When does your current contract expire and what are the auto-renewal terms? Silent renewals lock both price and exit windows.
- Have you gotten a competitive quote in the last 12 months? Even incumbents sharpen pricing when a credible alternative exists on paper.
- If you had to switch platforms in 90 days, do you have a migration plan? Port orders, cutover windows, and training happen in order. You do not get to wish them parallel.
Scoring note: If you answered "no" or "unsure" to more than four of these, you have homework before the next renewal, even if you stay put.
