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When was the last time you shopped around for a business phone system? If you’re like many decision makers, it’s been a while and the process is not necessarily at the top of your fun list. There’s a lot at stake when you’re trusting a third party to support your business communications. If you’re considering the hosted softswitch, this is especially true.

Fortunately, there are a few questions you can ask to ensure the provider you are considering is worth your time to investigate. Borrowing from a recent CanadaOne post, let’s take a look at what you need to keep in mind when selecting the hosted softswitch provider.

Features – there are a number of features and capabilities that are readily available on a VoIP connection that may have been economically out of reach with your traditional system. Ask for a list of features included in the standard pricing.

Support – while this one should be a given, you still need to ask the question. What is their response time? What is the standard Service Level Agreement (SLA)? What is the escalation process when a problem occurs? If there are any other support issues relevant to your business or industry, add them to the list.

Stability – make sure you’re doing business with an economically sound provider. It’s OK to ask the question as you want to be sure they will be around in the next five years to support your business and your growth.

Disaster Recovery – you hope there won’t ever be a need for a business continuity plan, but you still need to have one. If you don’t get a solid and confident answer here, keep looking.

References – ask to talk to customers who aren’t included on the website or the marketing materials. You want to talk to people who are using the hosted softswitch today and can give you realistic answers. Pose some of the same questions here to them to form an accurate assessment.

Mobility – if mobile solutions are an important part of your operation, they need to be included in the questions. How can the provider support your mobile initiatives? If they aren’t in place now, will they be in the near future?

As for the rest of the questions, build out a few of your own that apply to your unique environment. The point is to get the satisfaction you need on the questions you have today. Only those able to pass this test should be considered a viable candidate.