Enterprise phone system buyer’s guide: The importance of connected customer communications

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How do you know when your company is ready for enterprise-level solutions? One sign is when you’re handling an overwhelming number of phone lines across regions and time zones. Another tell is that as your company expands, issues like disconnected tools, fragmented data, and siloed departments keep causing bottlenecks and quality issues.

An enterprise-grade phone system connects large, dispersed teams, and guarantees seamless communications everywhere you operate. They’re purpose-built to handle a high volume of voice calls while exceeding customer expectations.

Think you’re ready to leave behind smaller, more limited phone systems? Our guide explores key features, compares top options, and provides a matrix to help you find the enterprise business phone system for you.

Key takeaways

• Enterprise-grade phone systems go beyond basic call features, offering advanced capabilities like AI-powered analytics and deep integrations with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk.

• Scalability and resilience are essential, with systems expected to handle call volume spikes, adapt to regulatory changes, and support expansion into new markets.

• Some phone systems fall short when they lack critical features that keep teams connected, don’t offer robust integrations, and aren’t able to scale without performance issues.

• Modern enterprises are shifting to cloud-based VoIP and hosted PBX solutions andmoving away from on-premise systems to cut costs and boost flexibility, a trend expected to dominate the market by 2034.

What makes a phone system “enterprise-grade”?

Enterprise-grade phone systems are designed to manage complex business communications at scale. This goes beyond offering traditional call center features like interactive voice response (IVR) and call routing. 

For a business phone system to count as “enterprise-grade”, it should offer more advanced features, like AI-powered conversation intelligence and KPI-focused call analytics, that draw out insights to help you improve your team’s productivity. 

These systems should also seamlessly connect with your essential business tools, from CRMs like HubSpot and Salesforce to helpdesk software like Intercom and Zendesk. 

But the true test is a business phone system’s ability to handle spikes in activity and adapt to your company’s unique challenges. For example, solutions must be able to withstand sudden surges in call volume, maintain compliance with evolving laws, and enable you to enter new markets quickly.

For comparison, more limited phone systems struggle to scale beyond their initial setup. They lack essential features for large teams, such as automated call tagging and centralized conversations centers, and only support basic integrations. When stretched past their limits, these systems increase the risk of issues like long call queues and broken handoffs.

Types of enterprise phone systems

Enterprise solutions are either on-premise or hosted. The key difference is that on-premise systems require you to manage enterprise telephony infrastructure, whereas hosted ones deliver the phone service online and in the cloud. Hosted systems typically use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to do this.

Nowadays, on-premise solutions are considered to be legacy systems. Enterprises are rapidly switching to cloud business phone systems to reduce costs and gain more flexibility. And if current trends continue, enterprise VoIP and PBX will account for 75 percent of the global market by 2034.

Key features and benefits of enterprise phone systems

The main differences between basic and enterprise-level business communication software are subtle but crucial. Let’s outline the advanced features enterprise systems offer and explore how they support complex operations.

Multi-level IVR and smart call routing

A business phone system with multi-level IVR and auto attendant capabilities lets you design complex menu systems. This gives callers a series of options so the system can route them more effectively.

For example, imagine you sell electronic devices. Callers might choose the following options to ask about a warranty on their product: 

• One for customer support

• Two for refunds and returns

• Three for a faulty product

Not only do you need to offer these custom options, but your system also needs to be smart enough to understand where the caller wants to go, regardless of what they choose on their first step in the IVR menu. 

When your IVR is advanced enough to understand what customers want, smart routing decides who’s the ideal candidate to help. The system can then intelligently route calls based on a range of factors like agent availability and expertise.

Why you need it

As organizations become larger, communications teams tend to specialize. One agent may understand your refund process in detail but be unable to answer more complex questions about warranties. Multi-level IVRs and smart call routing direct incoming calls to the right specialist on the first try, ensuring callers get quick support and boosting first call resolution (FCR) rates. 

Magee Clegg, CEO of Cleartail Marketing, gives an example of how his team uses smart routing: “Prospects who download multiple whitepapers get routed to senior sales reps, while early-stage leads go to qualification specialists. This prevents the best prospects from getting stuck with junior staff.”

Live call monitoring and coaching

Managers use live call monitoring to listen in on active calls and assess agent performance. And with call whispering, they can offer coaching in real-time without interrupting the conversation because only the agent can hear them.

AI adds another layer of support by analyzing interactions in real time and providing suggestions and tips to agents and reps. For example, Aircall’s AI Assist Pro can indicate upsell opportunities in real time to improve your sales team’s techniques and outcomes, as well as surface the most relevant information about each customer from your CRM for a smoother support experience. 

Why you need it

Maintaining oversight across a large, distributed team of agents is challenging. Live call monitoring allows you to watch them in action, while AI tools can take some of that work off managers' plates. This helps onboard new agents faster and prevents skills gaps from impacting your service and sales performance. 

Advanced conversation intelligence

AI-powered call insights give you an overview of customer interactions from a centralized dashboard. They can provide better understanding of your company’s performance or enable you to zoom in on specific performance issues among departments and individual agents.

Features like Aircall’s AI Assist enable you to monitor key trends, gauge customer sentiment, and score calls based on your predetermined criteria. You can tell, for instance, whether clients are frustrated with a system upgrade, what problems it’s causing, and whether agents are successfully resolving the issue.

Why you need it

Consistent standards become harder to maintain when you’re managing large, dispersed teams. Conversation intelligence enables leaders to evaluate interactions and uncover issues without reviewing each call recording individually.

Aaron Whittaker, VP of Demand Generation at Thrive Internet Marketing Agency, explains that this allows agents to act quickly and prevents bottlenecks from forming. “If I need to export files or rely on a reporting team to get that information, the system becomes a barrier to fast decision-making.”

Automated voice agent

Automated voice agents handle basic inquiries independently. They can answer simple questions about payment options, return policies, or estimated shipping times. 

If you have a business phone system with an AI Voice Agent like Aircall’s, your organization can automate a broad range of calls and offer round-the-clock service. For example, a customer wanting to know about pricing details could have all their questions answered without even having to speak with an agent.

Why you need it

Enterprises receive hundreds, if not thousands, of phone calls every day. Using automation and AI to handle basic inquiries reduces the burden on your agents. This ensures they have the capacity for more complex, high-impact calls and guarantees a high response rate during peak times.

Native integrations

You already have a full tech stack, and your phone system should be able to integrate with all your most essential tools, including:

• CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce)

• Helpdesk (Intercom, Zendesk)

• Sales automation (Pipedrive, Salesloft)

• eCommerce (Gorgias, Shopify)

• Internal communications tools (Microsoft Teams, Slack)

These integrations let you create automated workflows across tools. For example, when a customer calls in with an issue, a ticket automatically gets created in your helpdesk platform. 

Why you need it

Integrations ensure data doesn’t get lost or siloed in your complex system. Gauri Manglik, CEO and Co-Founder of Instrumentl, says the impact was immediate when they switched from a solution that prioritized advanced features to one with a strong, connected ecosystem. “We tracked client calls effortlessly, followed up faster, and improved communication across teams.”

Security and compliance 

It’s your responsibility to keep your customers’ data safe, which is why you should look for a system with features like Two-Factor Authentication (2FA), SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) Authentication, and TLS (Transport Layer Security) and SRTP (Secure Real-time Transport Protocol) encryption. 

Large companies often operate across borders, so enterprise phone systems must include robust security measures and support compliance with international regulations, including:

• Data privacy laws: A cloud phone system must have secure storage, encryption, and user permissions, so nobody gains unauthorised access to sensitive data like financial records or contact details.

• Industry-specific regulations: Enterprise systems let you configure them to handle sensitive information, like callers’ medical records or financial reports, to comply with regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Why you need it

Security measures aren’t just about complying with data privacy regulations; they’re a trust signal that shows callers you care about their data and privacy. This helps you build a reputation as a customer-first business and build trust with your audience, both prospective buyers and loyal customers. 

Top enterprise phone system providers

While the best business phone systems offer many of the same features, there are some key differences to look out for, like integrations capabilities and security features. Use our filterable matrix to compare the options and get an idea of which one’s right for you.

This is where we will embed the filterable matrix when produced.

Final checklist: What to ask when choosing a provider

Before you commit to a solution, ask the following questions to confirm it’s the best long-term choice:

• Will the system integrate with your essential software? Louis Balla, Chief Revenue Officer at Nuage, says, “Skip the fancy collaboration features if your core business processes aren't integrated first. I've watched companies spend six figures on advanced phone systems while their sales team still manually enters lead information from calls.”

• How quickly can the VoIP provider onboard us? As enterprise rollouts demand a lot of coordination, check what systems the provider offers to keep the process on track, like dedicated onboarding support and setup guides. 

• Does it have an intuitive interface? A VoIP phone system must fit into your workflow and be easy for agents to adopt and use or it will slow down your processes.

• Can we be confident about ongoing compliance? Whittaker says to ask specific questions about laws, adding that “if the answers lack clarity or detail, move on. A reliable system should continue working during high-stakes conditions.”

Keep your customer communications connected with Aircall

An enterprise phone solution must be adaptable, reliable, and deeply integrated if you want it to help your team instead of hold you back. Otherwise, it creates bottlenecks and siloes that frustrate both agents and callers.

The right tool will connect with your software ecosystem and enable you to pinpoint ways to boost productivity and performance. And Aircall does just that. 

“Being able to add other tools to Aircall and vice versa has been crucial to us as a data-driven company,” says Molly Wahlström, Customer Operations Manager at Qred Bank. “We also love the analytical part of Aircall, and being able to deep-dive on a team level, number level, or agent level to get insights.”

With over 200 integrations, AI-powered agents and insights, and scalable pricing plans, Aircall is a strong choice for enterprises that want unified communications and strive to improve efficiency and performance over time, no matter how big the team.

Learn how to cut costs, reduce complexity, and improve performance with AI-powered connected communications. Read the guide. 

Published on September 1, 2025.