Two sites usually run best on one system. Business telephone systems can cover both offices from a single setup. That means shared extensions, one call plan, and one set of rules about where calls go. The exception is a site whose internet connection cannot carry its calls.
Sixfam is a business phone and internet provider based in Keysborough, in Melbourne's south-east.
One system means both offices connect to the same phone system, wherever that system sits. Staff share one extension list. Calls between the sites travel inside the system rather than over the public phone network.
One shared system suits most businesses opening a second location. Reception puts a caller through to the new site by dialling three or four digits. A call rule is changed once, not twice. There is one bill, and one place to look when something goes wrong.
Two separate systems make sense in a few real situations. The sites trade under different names and never transfer calls to each other. Or one site has an internet connection too weak to carry calls, so it needs a system on site. Or the second site is a short lease you may not renew, and you want to walk away from it without touching head office.
Both options carry ongoing cost. A second system means a second setup, a second monthly charge, and a second round of upgrades. A second site on one system means handsets, a connection, and the labour to install them.
| One shared system | Two separate systems | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup cost | One setup, plus handsets and a connection at site two | Two setups, two lots of programming |
| Transfers between sites | Dial the extension, the call stays inside the system | An outside call, with different caller ID and hold behaviour |
| Reception cover | Calls roll between sites on a rule you set once | A diversion set up and remembered at each end |
| If one site loses internet | Phones at that site stop, the rest keeps running, and calls can roll across on their own | Only that site is affected, and nothing moves unless someone diverts it |
| Ongoing management | One set of rules, one bill, one upgrade | Two of everything |
An extension is the short internal number staff dial to reach each other, such as 100 for reception. The numbering plan is the list of which number belongs to which desk.
Set the plan for four sites even if you are opening the second. Four digits give you the room. Give each site its own thousand and leave the rest empty.
Inside each site, block the numbers by team. Leave gaps between the blocks.
| Range | Use |
|---|---|
| 1000 to 1019 | Reception and admin |
| 1020 to 1049 | Sales |
| 1050 to 1079 | Warehouse and dispatch |
| 1080 to 1099 | Spare |
Three rules keep the plan usable:
A numbering plan built for two sites gets rebuilt at four. Leave the gaps now and you will not have to touch it again.
A warm transfer is where you speak to the other person first, tell them who is calling, then connect the call. A blind transfer sends the caller straight through with no announcement.
On one shared system, both work across sites the same way they work down the hall. You dial the extension. The customer waits on your hold music, and the call never leaves the system. The receiving phone shows the customer’s number, so whoever picks up knows who they have.
On two separate systems, a transfer becomes an outside call to the other site's public number. The phone at the far end shows your office number instead of the customer's. If nobody answers, the call often lands in the wrong voicemail box or bounces back to your switchboard. The customer has waited through all of it.
Agree the rule before staff work one out for themselves. Use a warm transfer where the other person needs context. Use a blind transfer where the caller has asked for someone by name.
A ring group is a set of extensions that ring together or one after another. A queue holds callers in line until someone is free. Overflow is the rule that decides where a call goes when nobody picks up.
The usual setup for a small second site is simple. Calls to the new site ring the desks there first, then overflow to the head office queue. Head office answers as though the call came to them, because on one system it did.
The same rule works in reverse. It covers lunch, a site meeting, or a day when the second site is closed and head office is open.
Two things are worth setting up at the same time. Show the site name on the receiving handset, so whoever answers knows which office the caller rang. And put someone's name against the second site's voicemail, because a mailbox nobody owns fills up for months without anyone noticing. Ring times and after-hours rules sit in a separate part of the system.
A local number is a landline number from the block set aside for a particular area. Under the Telecommunications Numbering Plan 2025, administered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, landline numbers are allocated to standard zone units. These are the areas that decide where a number belongs.
All of Victoria uses the 03 area code, so a Melbourne head office and a Shepparton site already share it. The digits that follow are what make a number read as local to a town.
You can hold a local number for the second town and point it at the same system as head office. Calls to that number can ring only the second site's desks. They can drop into the same queue as everything else. Or they can ring the site first and head office after. Which one you get is a rule inside the system.
Some regional customers treat a local number as a sign that a business has people in town. It is also the number that shows on the local Google listing for that address.
If you are taking over an existing business at the address, its numbers can move with it. Moving a number between providers is called porting, and it is covered by the Communications Alliance Local Number Portability Code. Industry sources commonly put a single straightforward landline number at one to five business days. A block of numbers with services attached runs longer, at five to fifteen business days. Start it while the fit-out is being planned.
Each site needs its own internet connection to carry its calls. On a hosted system, one site losing its connection stops the phones at that site. The rest of the system keeps running, and calls to that site can roll to another office or to mobiles on their own. Where the system sits on site at head office, a head office outage takes both offices down with it.
Connection quality in a regional town varies street by street. Two businesses in the same town, three streets apart, are often offered different connection types. What is available depends on the infrastructure each address is attached to. Check the exact address, unit number included, rather than the town.
The connection carries a lead time you cannot shorten. Checking what is available at an address takes a day or two. Building a new connection where none exists can take weeks. No amount of chasing changes that once the lease is signed and the fit-out is booked.
Run the address check while you are still comparing tenancies. If it comes back with only a slow copper connection, you still have room to move. A different tenancy in the same street, a fixed wireless service, or a system that sits on site with its own lines all stay open to you. After you sign, those choices cost money instead of a phone call.
Before you sign the lease on site two, check what connection type is available at that address. Call 03 9200 2800 and we will look it up with you.
Yes. Two offices can run on one phone system, sharing extensions, call rules and one bill. Staff at either site dial a short extension to reach each other. The call stays inside the system rather than going out over the public phone network.
Yes. On a hosted phone system, each site needs its own internet connection to carry its calls. The two connections do not have to be the same type or speed. Each one has to handle the number of calls that site makes at the same time.
Yes, where both sites run on one system. An extension is the short internal number that reaches a desk directly. On a shared system it works the same whether the desk is in the next room or in another town.
Yes. A site can hold a local number for its own area and still run on the same system as head office. Under the Telecommunications Numbering Plan 2025, landline numbers are allocated to the area they belong to, so the number reads as local to callers in that town.
Moving a number between providers is called porting. Industry sources commonly put a single straightforward landline number at one to five business days. A block of numbers with services attached runs at five to fifteen business days. Delays usually come from account details that do not match the losing provider's records.
On a hosted system, the phones at the affected site stop working and the rest of the system keeps running. Calls to that site can roll automatically to another office, into a shared queue, or out to mobiles, so the caller still reaches someone.
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