- Put together a list of resons why you need a new phone system (certain features, lowered cost, system dead)

- Take an inventory of your existing phones

- Where will the PBX be? Many new(er) PBXs can be housed within the data centre, instead of at the office.

- Decide whether a hosted on on premise solution makes sense

- Review traditional phone interconnects who offer traditional systems (ie Avaya, Mitel, etc)

- Consider a non-traditioal interconnect that offer open source solutions such as Asterisk

- Determine needs for redundancy

- This might be a great opportunity to consider teleworker features and distaster recovery options

- Look into replacing, or complimenting existing PRI or analog circuits with SIP services

- Think about the kind of reporting you want to get out of the system (many companies do this step last-- big mistake)