Business Phone Systems for New Zealand Business
One business number that reaches your team wherever they are, on the handset, the laptop or the mobile. Set up, ported and supported by a local team.
Supporting New Zealand businesses since 1989
What is a business phone system?
A business phone system is the service that answers your main number and decides where each call goes. It handles greetings, menus, ringing groups, transfers, voicemail and reporting, so a caller reaches the right person rather than a directory of individual extensions.
You will also see it called an office phone system or a business telephone system. PBX is the older name for the box that did this job on site, and it is still used loosely to mean a phone system of any kind.
Modern systems run over your internet connection rather than copper lines, which is why the same number can ring a desk handset, a laptop and a mobile at once. The technology matters less than the routing. What you are really buying is a set of rules about who answers, in what order, and what happens when nobody does.
Most phone systems were designed for a building, not a business
The old model assumed everyone sat at a desk. Calls arrived at a box on the wall, travelled down a cable, and rang a handset that somebody was sitting next to. That assumption held for decades and then stopped being true almost overnight.
Now half the team is on site, at home, or in the van. The system still rings the desk. Calls go to a voicemail nobody checks, staff hand out mobile numbers to work around it, and the main number quietly stops being the way customers reach you.
The cost of that is not on any invoice. It is the calls that were never answered and never logged.
What you get
What a modern business phone system actually does
Six things that change on the day you switch.
Calls follow the person
The same extension rings a desk handset, a computer and a mobile app. Someone working from home, on site or between offices is reachable on the business number, not a personal mobile.
A greeting and a menu
An auto attendant answers, offers options and routes the caller. Out of hours, holidays and one-off closures each get their own behaviour, set once rather than remembered on the day.
Ring groups and queues
Calls hunt across a team in the order you choose rather than stopping at the first unanswered desk. Callers hold in a queue instead of hearing an engaged tone.
Voicemail that reaches someone
Messages arrive by email as an audio file, so they get picked up from wherever the person is working. Call recording is available where you need it for training or dispute resolution.
Numbers you already own
Existing landline and toll-free numbers port across to the new system. We manage the porting so there is no gap in service while it happens.
Reporting you can act on
How many calls came in, how many were answered, how long people waited, and which were missed. Most businesses have never had this and find it changes how they staff the phones.
The options
Cloud system, on-premises PBX, or stay on the landlines?
Three routes, and the right one depends less on the technology than on what you already own, how many sites you run, and how long you plan to stay where you are.
Traditional lines and PBX
Copper lines into a box on the wall, with handsets wired to desks.
- Fits when the hardware is young, everyone is on site, and nothing is changing
- You get a system that works exactly as it did the day it was installed
- The catch capital cost at replacement, and copper is being retired
Cloud phone system
The system runs in a data centre and reaches whatever device your people use.
- Fits when staff work across sites, from home, or on the road
- You get routing, queues, apps and reporting on a monthly cost with no hardware to replace
- The catch it depends on your internet connection, so that gets checked first
On-premises, modernised
A current-generation system you own, running on site rather than hosted.
- Fits when you have a specific reason to keep call handling in the building
- You get the modern feature set with the equipment on your own premises
- The catch you carry the hardware, the upgrades and the replacement cycle
In practice most New Zealand businesses moving off copper end up cloud-hosted, because the alternative means buying hardware to solve a problem that no longer needs hardware. We will tell you when it does not apply to you.
Cost
What does a business phone system cost in New Zealand?
Most of our quotes are a single fixed monthly cost rather than a system charge and a call plan billed separately. The system and the calling are always bundled together, and handsets sit inside the same figure where you want them. Setup is quoted once, as a one-off.
One monthly figure
The system, the calling and any handsets come as a single fixed monthly cost rather than separate charges to reconcile. Nothing is metered against you in the background, and the figure you agree is the figure that arrives.
Handsets are optional
Plenty of teams never want a desk phone and work entirely from the computer and mobile apps. Where you do want handsets, they can be included in the same monthly figure rather than bought separately.
What moves the number:
- How many people need an extension, which is usually fewer than the headcount
- Whether you want desk handsets or your team will work from the computer and mobile apps
- How complex the call routing is, since a single ring group is quicker to build than a multi-site menu with queues and out-of-hours rules
- How many numbers are being ported and who they are currently with
- Whether your internet connection needs work first, which we check before quoting rather than after
We quote the one-off setup as a fixed figure and confirm the monthly cost in writing before you commit, so there is nothing to discover later.
The process
How a phone system change actually runs
Work out how calls should flow
Who answers first, what happens when they do not, where after-hours calls go, and which teams need their own queue. This is the part that determines whether the new system feels better than the old one.
Check the connection
Voice is unforgiving about network quality in a way that email is not. We test the internet connection and the internal network before committing to a date, and say so if something needs fixing first. See business internet.
Build it and port the numbers
The system is configured and tested while your existing phones keep running. Number porting is lodged and tracked, and the old service stays live until the port completes.
Cut over and show people
The switch happens at a time that suits you, usually outside business hours. Staff get shown the handset and the apps on the day, because a system nobody knows how to transfer a call on is not an improvement.
Adjust it once it is real
Call flows that looked right on paper always need a tweak once real calls hit them. We expect that and build it into the first few weeks rather than treating it as a fault.
The phones and the network, from one team
- We already run the network. When a call quality problem turns out to be the connection or the switch, there is nobody to hand it to. That is the most common cause and the most common finger-pointing.
- Since 1989. More than 35 years of New Zealand business technology, through several complete generations of phone system.
- Local people. Christchurch and Dunedin teams who can come to site for the cutover rather than talk you through it.
- We manage the porting. Number ports are the part that goes wrong. We lodge them, track them and keep the old service live until they complete.
- Training is included, not optional. Staff get shown how to transfer, park and pick up a call, which is where most of the value actually sits.
- We will tell you to wait. If your current system has years left and nobody is struggling, that is the advice you get.
Go deeper
The detail behind each of these
Everything above is covered at length elsewhere on the site. Start wherever your question sits.
How the technology works
Handling more calls
Planning and support
Where we work
Business phone systems in Christchurch and Dunedin
On site for the cutover
Teams based in Christchurch since 2009 and Dunedin since 1989. Someone is in the building on switchover day, because that is when the questions arrive and when a handset that will not register needs hands on it. More on VoIP in Christchurch.
Nationwide remotely
For businesses elsewhere in New Zealand we run the same process remotely, with a site visit where the cutover warrants it. Multi-site organisations are common, and the system does not care where the offices are.
Questions
Business phone system FAQs
How much does a business phone system cost in New Zealand?
Most quotes are a single fixed monthly cost covering the phone system, the calling and any handsets, with setup charged once as a separate one-off. The system and the calling are always bundled together, and handsets can be left out entirely if your team works from the computer and mobile apps. What moves the number is how many people need an extension, whether you want desk handsets, how complex the call routing is, how many numbers are being ported, and whether the internet connection needs work first. Exodesk quotes the setup as a fixed figure and confirms the monthly cost in writing before you commit.
Can we keep our existing phone numbers?
Yes. Number porting transfers your existing New Zealand landline and toll-free numbers to the new system. Exodesk lodges and tracks the port, and your old service stays live until it completes, so there is no gap where calls go nowhere.
Is a cloud phone system reliable enough for business calls?
Yes, provided the internet connection underneath it is sound. That is the real variable, which is why we test the connection and the internal network before agreeing a cutover date rather than after. Where a connection is not up to it, we say so and deal with that first.
What happens to our phones if the internet goes down?
Calls fail over to mobiles or to another destination you nominate, so the business number keeps working even when the office connection does not. This is configured up front rather than improvised on the day, and it is one of the practical advantages over a system tied to the building.
Can you replace our existing PBX?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons businesses call. A legacy PBX is usually replaced rather than upgraded, because the cost of extending old hardware is rarely worth it against a system that no longer needs hardware at all.
Do we need to buy new handsets?
Not necessarily. Many teams work entirely from computer and mobile apps and never want a desk phone. Where handsets are wanted they can be included in the monthly cost rather than bought separately, and some existing models can be reused, which we check as part of scoping rather than assuming either way.
How long does a switchover take?
For a single-site business the build and testing usually run over a couple of weeks, with the cutover itself outside business hours. Number porting timing depends on the losing provider, and can often be quicker where a firm date needs to be met. Multi-site organisations take longer, and we say so before starting.
Will it work with Microsoft Teams?
It can. Teams integration suits businesses already living in Teams all day, and it is one option among several rather than the default. Whether it is worth it depends on how your people actually work, which is a conversation before it is a configuration.
What platform does Exodesk use?
We deploy 3CX, and we are a certified 3CX partner. We are not tied to it. The platform matters far less than whether the call flows are designed properly and whether someone answers when a customer rings, which is where we spend the time.
Can we see who is missing calls?
Yes. Reporting covers calls received, answered, abandoned and wait times, by team and by person. Most businesses have never had this visibility and find it changes how they staff the phones more than any feature does.
We have more than one office. Does that complicate it?
It simplifies it. A cloud system treats every site as part of one phone system, so internal calls between offices are free, extensions are consistent, and reception can cover for another location. Multi-site is where the difference from traditional systems is most obvious.
Not sure whether your phone system needs replacing?
Tell us what is prompting the question. If the honest answer is that your current setup has years left in it, that is what you will hear.
Christchurch 03 343 3124 · Dunedin 03 479 2941 · Nationwide 0800 396 337
About us
Business phones and IT from one team in Christchurch & Dunedin
Originally formed in 1989 as Willis White & Co, Exodesk was established in Dunedin by Chris Willis and Andrew White. We expanded to Christchurch in 2009, growing into one of New Zealand’s most established IT providers. Today we deliver business phone systems, managed IT services, cloud and cyber security to businesses across Christchurch, Dunedin and beyond.
Contact us
For a quote on a business phone system, or a second opinion on the one you have