Phone System Management for Projects

On April 1, 2012

An overload of communications (Photo credit: windsordi)

Best practice project management is all about efficiency. Nowhere is this more obvious than in communications. Projects generate and attract information. Verbal communication, in fact, is a critical part of the business operations of any project. Any project needs good computer and telephone systems to function. The best way to make sure your project is able to function efficiently is to give it its own dedicated communications, outside the mainstream system.

There?s a good reason for having a reliable standalone communications system. As all project managers know, the big issues for any project are adequate resources and budget. Not too surprisingly, communications can take up quite a slice of the budget, and you need to get a good combination of cost efficiency and business efficiency in place.

Basic organization

Everyone on a project is always busy, so you need to ensure there are multiple options for project staff to make sure communications are effective without compromising work performance and time management. Best practice communication systems create a ?flow chart? effect. In effect, you configure your phone system to match your business and operational needs. The general rule here is that simpler is better.

There are two basic methods:

• Sectioning calls: The project phones are segmented into a mix of functional roles, using a function based approach to contacts.
• The filter approach: A single stream call line with an operator to screen calls and make sure they get through to the right people, particularly urgent calls, which can get held up in traffic in busy environments.

System organization

The other big issue is how to configure your system to deal with project information loads. The new business phone systems are excellent for managing projects and segmenting call loads. The new ?contact centre? software allows plenty of flexibility in setting up phone systems for projects and all the fundamental phone system technologies.

In practice you can design a project?s phone system in multiple ?modules?. For example, a CAD design group project can be configured very efficiently:

• A filter system using one point of direct contact for external calls. This is actually a critical function for a project of this type, which can often be decentralized and based at multiple locations with different contact issues.
• A split system in which specific design functions are separated for organizational and communications purposes. This makes a lot of sense if design functions are highly compartmentalized, and reflects the organizational roles.
• A business unit and a design unit configuration. This is more common in sales and marketing projects, but works well where there?s a clear demarcation of roles of project units.

Alternatively you can use a single stream approach for a centralized project environment. It?s best to use live operators for this method rather than an auto system. The live operator provides a useful and time saving quality control and can filter calls more effectively.

The good news is that the new phone technology makes it very easy to create a good, cost-effective and time-efficient system you need for your project.

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