Business Phone Systems
Phones are still how customers reach most Geelong businesses, and there's more than one right answer. GravIT designs, installs and maintains business phone systems (calling inside Microsoft Teams, a hosted system with proper desk handsets, or a mix), then keeps your numbers, your call flows and your after-hours message working.
Two ways to do it
- Teams Phone is best when your team already lives in Microsoft Teams. Calls follow the person across laptop, mobile and handset, and the old phone system retires. Full details on Teams Phone.
- A hosted phone system is a cloud phone system with real desk handsets, cordless options for the warehouse or the floor, and a softphone app for staff on the road. Right for teams who want a phone that looks and behaves like a phone.
Either way you get
- Your existing numbers kept
- Call flows designed with you
- After-hours handling
- One team for phones, internet and Microsoft 365
- Local support afterwards
Hosted phone system versus Teams Calling
We sell both, and we have no reason to push you either way, so here is the honest comparison rather than a sales sheet. Most businesses land on one of these within about ten minutes of the first conversation.
| The question | Hosted phone systemHandsets on desks | Teams Calling |
|---|---|---|
| Does your team live in Microsoft Teams all day? | Doesn't matter. The phone system stands on its own and works the same whether you use Teams or not. | This is the case for it. Calls sit beside the chats and meetings people are already in. |
| Do people need a physical handset on a desk? | Yes, and that is the point. Desk phones, cordless for a warehouse or workshop, a proper reception console. | Possible, but handsets are the awkward part rather than the natural one. |
| Is there a reception desk juggling calls? | A web operator panel shows every extension at a glance, with drag-and-drop transfers. Receptionists tend to prefer it. | Workable, but transfers are more clicks and less at-a-glance. |
| Do you run anything like a queue, such as a service desk or a bookings line? | Queues, hunt groups, priority, callback when the wait gets long, and per-agent reporting. | Queues exist, and are fine for simpler setups. |
| Are there staff who need a phone but not a Microsoft licence? | Yes. An extension costs an extension, and nobody needs a full licence to answer a phone. | Every caller needs the licensing, which adds up for a warehouse full of people who just need a handset. |
| Do you have phones in shared spaces, such as a workshop, a smoko room or a loading dock? | Straightforward, including hot-desking where the phone becomes whoever signs into it. | Less natural. Shared devices are the fiddly case. |
Plenty of businesses end up running both: Teams Calling for the office staff, handsets where handsets make sense. That is a supported answer, not a fudge. There is more detail on the Teams Phone page.
What you can actually do with it
Everything below is a thing we configure, not a feature list copied off a brochure. If you want something here turned on, it is a phone call, not a project.
Auto-attendant
“Press 1 for sales.” Menus you can change when the business changes, with the greeting recorded over the phone or uploaded as a file you had done properly.
Hunt groups and queues
Ring everyone at once, or in order, or round-robin. Callers can hold their place in a queue, and be offered a callback instead of waiting when the line is long.
Time-based routing
Business hours, after hours, lunch, public holidays and the week you close over Christmas, all set once, years ahead, rather than remembered on the day.
Reception console
A browser panel showing who is on a call, who is free and who is on lunch, with transfers by dragging. This is the feature receptionists actually notice.
Voicemail to email
Messages arrive in the inbox as audio, so they get dealt with from anywhere. Separate greetings for busy, unavailable and “I am on leave until the 14th”.
Hot-desking
Sign in to any handset and it becomes your extension, with your number and your voicemail. It signs itself out after hours so the next person starts clean.
Call recording
On for everyone, or only for particular numbers or teams. Useful for training, dispute resolution and the industries where it is expected of you.
Reporting that means something
Calls answered, calls missed, how long people waited, per queue and per person, exportable. Most businesses find out something uncomfortable in the first month.
Fax to email
For the one supplier, insurer or government department that still insists. Faxes arrive as email; you can send them the same way.
The phone in your pocket
A softphone app so the office number rings on a mobile and calls out as the business rather than a personal number. Nobody has to hand out their own mobile again.
The parts people forget
Phone projects rarely go wrong on the phones. They go wrong on the things nobody thought to mention until cutover day.
- The safety lines. Lift phones, fire and back-to-base alarm lines, EFTPOS terminals and medical alerts sit on separate services and do not move with the phone system. We audit them before anything changes, rather than discovering one at 6pm on cutover day.
- Your numbers. Porting timeframes belong to your current provider, not to us. We lodge it, chase it and tell you the window once it is confirmed, and nothing gets cut over until the port is done.
- The internet underneath it. Calls are only as good as the connection carrying them. We check the link and the network first, and we would rather tell you the internet needs fixing before the phones than sell you a phone system that stutters.
- Who answers what. The call flow is the actual project. The handsets are just where it ends up.
- Message on hold. Recorded properly, in a voice you chose, rather than whatever shipped with the system.
How GravIT rolls out a phone system
Five steps. Your numbers come with you, and the cutover happens at a time you pick, usually first thing on a quiet morning.
Scoping call
We ask how calls reach you today: the main number, who picks it up, what happens after hours, how many handsets are on desks and who never wanted one.
You give us half an hour and a recent phone bill.
Call-flow design
We put the main number, the queues, the after-hours behaviour and voicemail on a single page you can actually read, and you sign it off before we build anything.
You tell us who should answer what, and what happens when they do not.
Numbers and hardware
We lodge the port for your existing numbers and get handsets configured before they arrive, so they work when they are plugged in rather than needing a visit.
You sign the porting authority and tell us where the phones go.
Built, then tested with you
We build the call flow and walk it through with you on a real phone before it goes anywhere near a customer. You ring the main number, sit in the queue and hear the after-hours message for yourself.
You spend twenty minutes checking it behaves the way you pictured.
Cutover and the morning after
We cut over at the time you chose, and someone is on site or on the phone the next morning, because that is when the real questions arrive.
You tell your team it is happening. We handle the rest.
Because the same team also runs your Microsoft 365 and your internet connection, there is one number to ring when call quality goes off, and no argument about whether it is the phones, the network or the line. That argument is where most phone faults actually live.
What's included
- Call-flow design and build
- Number porting
- Desk, cordless and softphone options
- Auto-attendant and after-hours routing
- Voicemail to email
- Reception console
- Reporting and call recording where you want it
- Staff training and ongoing support
1300 and 1800 numbers
Often the first thing a business buys, and usually bought without advice. The choice between the two is not cosmetic. It decides who pays for the call, and that changes how many people make it.
1800: free to the caller
Free from landlines and from mobiles. You absorb the whole cost of the call. If you want the phone to ring (a sales line, a support line, anything where hesitation costs you the enquiry), this is the one.
1300: shared cost
A local-rate call from a landline, with you covering the rest. From a mobile it is charged at the caller's own plan rate, which is the part most businesses do not realise. If you advertise a 1300, you are required to say so.
Either way, the number is yours
It is not tied to an address, a line or a provider. Move office, change carrier, or open a second site, and it follows you. That portability is the real long-term value, and the reason it is worth choosing carefully once.
Supplied, billed and managed by GravIT
We supply 1300 and 1800 numbers through our carrier partner and bill them ourselves, so the number sits on your GravIT invoice alongside your phones and internet. One local number covers the lot when something needs changing.
- Work out whether 1300 or 1800 actually suits how you sell, because most people ask for the wrong one
- Point it wherever it should go: a queue, a mobile, an after-hours message, a different destination on weekends
- Change where it lands without changing what you advertise
- Separate numbers per campaign, so you can tell which advertising actually made the phone ring
- Port an existing 1300 or 1800 across from your current provider, so nothing you have printed goes stale
Turning calls into something you can actually read
Every business has the same blind spot: the phone is where most of what customers really think gets said, and almost none of it is written down. Recording fixes that in theory. In practice nobody has time to listen back to four hundred calls.
So we can have them transcribed. Once a call is text, it is searchable, and it can be handed to AI to do the reading for you: summarise a long call into the three things that were agreed, pull out what somebody promised to do, or look across a month of calls and tell you what customers keep asking about. That last one is usually the uncomfortable, useful part. Most businesses discover a question they answer forty times a week that could have been a line on their website.
These are two separate things, and we sell them separately. Call transcription is an add-on to your phone system, switched on per client rather than bundled into every plan, so you only carry it if you want it. The AI analysis of those transcripts is a separate product again. We run it for you, agree up front what it looks for and how the results come back, and it can be added or dropped without touching the phone system underneath.
Where it earns its keep
- What did we agree? The call where a date, a price or a scope was settled, findable in seconds instead of remembered differently by two people.
- Training. Real calls, with the good ones easy to find, rather than a role-play in a meeting room.
- Themes rather than incidents. One annoyed caller is an anecdote. The same complaint forty times is a business problem, and it only shows up when you can read across all of them.
- Notes that write themselves. A summary into the job or the CRM without anyone typing it up afterwards, which means it actually happens.
The honest part
We do not do AI voice agents, and we will not sell you one. The AI here reads calls that your people had. It does not take them. Plenty of vendors will offer to put a robot on your main number; our view is that most businesses ringing a local company are ringing precisely because they want a person, and answering them with software spends goodwill you cannot easily buy back.
Three other things worth knowing before you switch it on. Recording and transcribing calls carries obligations about telling people it is happening, and we set it up with that built in rather than bolted on. Transcription is good rather than perfect. Accents, crosstalk and a noisy workshop all cost accuracy, and a summary of a bad transcript is a confident piece of fiction. And none of this replaces occasionally listening to a call yourself. It tells you where to look; it does not do the caring for you.
If you want the wider picture on where this fits, the AI services pages cover how we decide what is worth automating and what is not, and safe AI usage policies covers writing the rules down before the tools arrive.
In short
- Calls recorded and transcribed
- Transcription is an add-on, per client
- Transcripts searchable
- AI summaries and themes across calls
- AI analysis is a separate product, run by us
- Notification obligations handled up front
- No AI answering your phone
Who a hosted phone system suits
We would rather talk you out of it now than unpick it later.
Good fit if…
- People want a handset on the desk, not a headset
- There is a reception desk moving calls around
- You run a queue for service, bookings or dispatch
- Some staff need a phone but no Microsoft licence
- There are phones in shared spaces such as the workshop, the dock or the smoko room
- Your current system is out of support or out of favour
Worth a chat first if…
- You are mid-contract with your current provider, and we will work out whether waiting is cheaper
- The internet at a site is patchy; that gets fixed first
- You have lift, alarm, EFTPOS or fax lines, which need auditing rather than assuming
- Your team already lives in Teams all day, so Teams Calling may simply suit you better
Not yet, if…
- You are moving premises in the next few months, so do it once, at the new site
- Your existing system is fine and genuinely does the job. We will say so.
What we need to quote it
- How many people take calls, and how many want a handset
- The numbers you need to keep
- A recent phone bill
- What should happen after hours
- Whether there are lift, alarm or EFTPOS lines at the site
Frequently asked questions
Which phone system suits us?
If your staff work in Microsoft Teams all day, Teams Phone is usually the simplest answer. If they want a handset on the desk and never open Teams, a hosted phone system fits better. We ask how you actually answer the phone before recommending either.
Do we keep our existing numbers?
Yes, numbers port across either way. Callers notice nothing except that you answer from wherever you are.
What about the lift phone, the alarm line and the EFTPOS line?
Those sit on their own services and we check them separately, because they are the things most often forgotten in a phone change, and the ones that matter most when they stop working.
Can we have hold music and an after-hours message?
Yes. Custom message on hold, an auto-attendant menu, and a different message after hours are all part of the call-flow design.
Do you still support older phone systems?
Yes. What we actively sell today is cloud-hosted PBX and Microsoft Teams Calling, and we support 3CX as well. If you already have a hosted PBX and handsets, we maintain them, and there is no pressure to replace a system that is doing its job.
How long does a phone changeover take?
From sign-off, most small and medium sites are live in two to four weeks, and the long pole is almost always number porting rather than anything technical. Porting timeframes belong to your current provider. We lodge it, chase it, and give you the cutover window once it is confirmed. Nothing gets switched until the numbers are ready.
Will the phones be down during the cutover?
No. The new system is built and tested alongside the old one, and the changeover is a switch rather than a rebuild. We book it for a quiet morning, and someone is available the following day, because that is when the real questions surface.
Do we need special internet for it?
Not special, but it does need to be sound. Calls are only as good as the connection carrying them, so we check the link and the internal network first. If the internet needs fixing, we will tell you that before selling you a phone system rather than after it stutters. See business internet.
Can staff take office calls on their mobile?
Yes. A softphone app puts the office number on the mobile, and outbound calls show the business number rather than a personal one. It is the single most requested feature we set up, usually by someone who has been handing out their own mobile number for years.
Can we record calls?
Yes, and you can be selective: everyone, or only particular numbers or teams. Worth knowing that recording carries legal obligations around notifying the other party, so we set it up with that in mind rather than just switching it on.
What reporting do we get?
Calls answered, calls missed, how long people waited, broken down by queue and by person, and exportable. Most businesses discover something uncomfortable in the first month, usually how many calls were being missed at lunchtime.
What is the difference between a 1300 and an 1800 number?
Who pays. An 1800 number is free to the caller from landlines and from mobiles, and you absorb the whole cost. A 1300 is a local-rate call from a landline, but from a mobile it is charged at the caller's own plan rate, which is the part most businesses do not realise, and why advertising a 1300 comes with a requirement to say so. If you want the phone to ring and hesitation costs you the enquiry, 1800 is usually the answer.
Do we keep a 1300 or 1800 number if we move or change providers?
Yes. Inbound numbers are not tied to an address, a line or a carrier, and that portability is most of their long-term value. We can also port an existing one across, so nothing you have already printed goes stale.
Can you transcribe our calls?
Yes. Yes, as an add-on to the phone system that we switch on per client. Calls are recorded and transcribed into searchable text. AI analysis of those transcripts is a separate product again, run by us, and it can summarise a call, pull out what was agreed, or look across a month of calls and tell you what customers keep asking about. Two honest notes: recording carries obligations about telling people it is happening, which we build in rather than bolt on; and transcription is good but not perfect, so accents, crosstalk and a noisy workshop all cost accuracy.
Do you do AI voice agents that answer calls?
No, and we will not sell you one. The AI we offer reads calls your people had; it does not take them. Most people ringing a local business are ringing because they want a person, and answering them with software spends goodwill that is hard to win back. Plenty of providers will sell you the robot. We would rather be the ones who told you not to.
Do people who just need a handset need a Microsoft licence?
Not on the hosted phone system, where an extension costs an extension. That is often what decides it for businesses with a workshop, warehouse or floor full of people who need a phone and nothing else.
Replace a phone system past its best
Tell us how your calls work now and we'll tell you what the options actually look like.