But with integration being at the heart of VoIP and UCaaS, you can't make a purchasing decision here without thinking about the future. On one side, consider each vendor carefully to see what they've done over the last half-decade in terms of product development and keeping up with VoIP and UCaaS trends. On the other side, think about what you'll need in the next five years.
19. "Hello, you've reached [your name]. I'm currently [exploring Asia, hiking through the jungle in Costa Rica, hanging out on the beach in Bermuda] — or more likely, [recovering from extreme jet lag, googling ‘Are red spiders poisonous,' or looking for SPF 150 sunscreen] and won't be back in the office until [date]. Leave your contact info and reason for calling and I'll get in touch then."

The problem there is that VoIP traffic is much more sensitive to network bumps and potholes than most general office traffic. That translates to garbled conversations, difficulty connecting over Wi-Fi, or (worst case) dropped and lost calls. If your business is small and your network is essentially contained in one or two wireless routers, then your configuration and testing headaches might be fairly easy (though still there). For medium and larger networks, these tasks can be complex and time-consuming, which translates into added cost in terms of man-hours.
When making an investment in a new phone system that needs to integrate with other systems, the Switchvox system makes the most sense. Regardless of how your business changes and grows, your initial investment is always protected. Using standard IVR/XML scripting, you can easily connect your database and create steps to take your caller almost any direction you can dream without having to know anything about phones or phone system software! For example, a school might offer parents a custom absentee line to quickly report student absences or a company may route new callers to sales people but existing clients are routed directly to a customer success team automatically based only on the Caller ID.