Are you currently using the old traditional phone lines such as analog, T1, or Pri?  You may want to look into changing your equipment and or service provider to save money.  If you are currently using analog phone lines, you should look into sip trunks.  It may help you save money.  It's the perfect time to find ways to cut costs, especially through this tough economy.  Sip Trunks are much more flexible then the traditional analog phone line, also known as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service).  Let's say for example - Senario 1 - You are a small office with 10 employees, 15 phones, and 7 phone lines.  You have the main line and 5 lines for hunting and 1 for the fax.  This means you can receive 6 calls at one time.  If you would like to add a second department with their own phone number, you will need to order more phone lines or split up the existing hunt group.  Now, you will have to make a decision on how many numbers will be in hunt group 1 and how many numbers in hunt group 2.  If you choose 4 for hunt group 1 and 2 for hunt group 2, Hunt group 1 can only receive a maximum of 4 calls at one time and hunt group 2 can only receive a maximum of 2 calls at one time.  If you had sip trunks or PRI (Primary Rate Interface) also known as ISDN, it's much more flexible.  You can have 6 channels and 100 numbers.  The numbers can be a Dallas, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, California, or any number you would like, of course you are on the mercy of what the phone companies can offer.  You do not need to allocate how many channels goes to what hunt group.  The system is smart enough to route calls based on the phone number that was dialed.  On top of this, you can even give every employee or every phone their own phone numbers also known as Direct Inward Dial.  With Sip Trunks, you can utilize 1 phone system for both the phone system in Austin and Dallas which could save you even more money.  You can save on equipment cost, flexibility cost, and or your business may simply be more productive.  You can have 1 employee answer both phones for the Austin and the Dallas office.  You can have Austin receptionist take lunch at 11:00 am while the Dallas receptionist answer phones for both offices.  At 12:00 pm, you can have the Dallas receptionist take lunch while the Austin receptionist take the calls for both offices.  That's about sums it up, Technology can help you save, be more productive, be more flexible, and or in some case, it may help you with all.