Common Phone System Features + Terms

Control Unit or KSU: (Key Service Unit):  In smaller business telephone systems the control unit is commonly referred to as the "Brain" or  "phone box". The size of the control unit determines the maximum configuration. Most multi line telephone systems have a number in the name such as "Meridian Norstar 616" or "Meridian Norstar 824 or the Compact ICS 416". These numbers usually refer to the maximum configuration of the system although not always. The "616" would mean 6 incoming lines and 16 telephones (extensions). The "824", 8 incoming lines and 24 telephones (extensions). The Norstar 824 telephone system is expandable to 56 incoming lines and 56 telephones (extensions) by adding expansion modules. Note: All key telephone systems have a port to wire in a radio for music on hold.

Co lines-These are the incoming telephone lines from your local telephone company.

Extensions-Stations-These are the actual telephones. They are extensions of the telephone system. They look like phones and work like phones, But only work with the control unit and will not work if they are plugged into a regular telephone line from the telephone company. So, if you ever move, Don't forget the control unit.    

Voice Mail-Auto Attendant- Voice mail with the auto attendant is like having a receptionist 24 hours a day without paying labor costs. The auto attendant is an answering service that answers incoming calls with a company greeting,plays a list of options to a caller, and transfers calls to the different extensions , then to a mail box if that extension is not answered, or back to a main directory. The auto attendant can be turned off during business hours and answered manually. The person answering the call can transfer calls to the different extensions and mail boxes. The voice mail system is a separate unit from the telephone system, it is wired into an extension port on the telephone system and is programmed to answer after a determined amount of rings.   Voice mail comes in different sizes 2 port,4 port, 6 port and up,  it depends on the amount of incoming traffic your company has. 

Ports: The term port means circuit. For instance, a 2 "Port" voice mail system has 2 circuits to handle call traffic. The number of ports on a voice mail system is directly related to the number of users that can be in voice mail at the same time. An example the "Norstar Startalk Flash" voice mail is 2 port and 48 mail boxes and is expandable to 4 ports. The term "port" is used when describing a telephone system,  is referring to the combined number of lines and extensions. An example of this would be the "Meridian Norstar Modular ICS with XC software ". This telephone system supports up to 272 total system ports. i.e. 100 incoming lines and 172 phones.

Things to think about before purchasing a phone system.

Many companies today have purchased telephones systems that were just right for their company only to find out that as their company grows the telephone system could not.  Estimating your future growth today may not cause you problems in your telephone system later. These are questions you need to consider when purchasing a telephone system.
1)What is the maximum number of phones that I can have on my telephone system?
2)What is the maximum number of phone lines (CO lines) for my system?
3)Can I expand the system to increase the number of phones or phone lines?
4)Can I add features to my phone system such as voicemail?

"Well I need 4 phones so I must need 4 lines, right?"

Not always,   Picking phone lines really depends on the number of calls you receive in a day, how many phones lines will be used at the same time. If you were running a sales office and you had 4 phones lines with 4 sales people and they were all on there phones, new callers would get a busy signal.  You would more likely need 6 to 8 phone lines.   A fax lines can be shared with the credit card terminal, shipping terminal or anything else, But not at the same time.

Roll Over Lines- Meaning if line 1 is busy it will roll over to line 2 an on down to your last line. Don't put the fax line in the hunt group, Because if all lines are busy the next caller will get the fax machine. "Not good for business."
When ordering your CO lines from your local telephone company order them in a hunt group, i.e.  Ordering 6 lines, put 4 in the hunt group 1 for the fax and 1 for a modem or 5 in the hunt group and share 1 line for the fax and the modem.

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