The Business Journals by Joe Cogliano, Senior Reporter

Original source

It's an all too common story: a vice president of sales loses a big deal because of a dropped phone call or missed voice mail then storms into the office of his company's owner to blame the phone system glitch for missing quota that month.

Now the owner is ready to switch telecommunications providers.

Every business has working phones and computers so it takes some sort of pain — like that big deal gone out the window — before most business owners will even consider switching telecom companies, said Dan Baldwin, executive director of Telecom Association, which publishes BusinessPhoneNews.com.

In the past, the question of how much static is on the line and how expensive is the bill were about the only two issues that might make a business look at switching providers. These days telecom systems are infinitely more complex, tied to computers and software, so the process of selecting a new telecom provider should take a lot more consideration.