Hosted PBX: The Business Phone System of Today

With the ever increasing internet access speeds globally many businesses, small and large, are looking to hosted voice technology for their chosen phone system.

There are many types of hosted phone systems available in the market which can be confusing to most consumers. This article will provide a basic understanding of hosted PBX phone systems, including how to go about getting one set up correctly for your own business.

Phone Systems of the Past

For you to truly understand the benefits of a hosted phone system, we'll need to take you along for a brief history lesson. PBX phone systems weren't as useful as they are today, and there were a number of reasons why.

In the not so distant past, if a business were to set-up multiple phone lines, they would need to rely on physical PBX (Private Branch Exchange) equipment installed on their premises to manage the business phone system. This PBX phone system allowed multiple phone lines to be connected and multiple calls to take place at the same time.

It was a genius idea at the time, and even allowed businesses to divert callers or transfer calls to different lines. Unfortunately, the PBX systems of the past didn't come without their demons.

The Investment Price

The biggest barrier for a lot of businesses looking to set up multiple phone lines in the past was the initial cost. The PBX equipment and hardware required to, could set businesses back many thousands of dollars. This doesn't even include the additional costs for handsets and the potential maintenance and setup costs for such, at the time, high-tech hardware.

Growth

With an old PBX phone system, growing your business wasn't easy either – you couldn't just plug in a new line when your current setup started to reach capacity. Instead you'd need to reinvest in a new and expensive PBX system to increase your overall capacity as traditional PBX phone systems could only handle a certain amount of phone lines.

Line Rental

If the initial cost wasn't a big enough headache, the line rental costs certainly turned many businesses away. In the past, business phone systems would use a traditional landline network, which would mean every single line would have their own individual costs. This would include the base monthly line rental charge, plus the additional call costs for calls made each month.

Limitations

Even the big businesses with millions to spend on PBX systems in the past still had barriers that they had to cross. Making any kind of system changes was often a nightmare – a super complicated system like the old PBX systems required fulltime IT staff or technicians to make simple routing changes, add new extensions or troubleshoot any problems.

Understanding Phone System Options Today

Nowadays, phone systems have become a lot easier to manage, the costs are lower and things are far less confusing. We've explained a little bit about the new PBX options below.

What is Hosted PBX?

Hosted PBX (also known as Virtual PBX) takes the terribly complicated PBX hardware setup of old and brings it into the Cloud. This means that everything is managed via the internet and helpful software can be used to manage the entire system far easier.

Setup costs are far less too, and because the entirety of the system is powered by the cloud, traditional landline costs are no longer an issue.

Any changes that need to be made to the system can be done by simply logging in to an accessible web portal or app. Something that would take an entire team to deal with in the past can now be left to the office manager without any stress.

Using VoIP; the Power of the Internet

Using the internet has its own benefits past the cost and the overall management involved, too. VoIP means Voice over Internet Protocol. This type of technology refers to any kind of voice call that takes place over the internet as opposed to over a cellular mobile or landline network. When opting for business grade VoIP services such as a Hosted PBX phone system, you're giving both your employees and your customers incredibly high sound quality. The only limitations are based upon your achievable network speed. Fibre is optimal for high quality performance but now even slower network connections like ADSL can be used to achieve VoIP calls with the quality of a traditional landline network.

Because everything is maintained via the cloud, you'll only be paying for the PBX hosting costs and the single business internet connection – this means it's possible to be saving thousands when compared to a traditional hardware PBX based setup.

Is a Hosted PBX Phone System Right for You?

These king of business phone systems can be useful for as little as 2 active lines, but can support dozens more. It's also incredibly easy to setup so if your budget for IT support is low, it becomes a valuable investment. The power of the cloud even allows businesses to divert calls to other phones and mobiles that are not on-location and it's all very easy to set up.

Getting going is super easy too – you simply need to plug your IP handsets into an ethernet connection, or have them connected via WiFi. All of the security and maintenance will be managed by the provider that hosts your phone system, too, so this means no more phone line malfunction headaches in the office.

Hosted PBX – Pros

There are many benefits to owning a virtual PBX system for your business. Below we have compiled a short list.

• Saving money on installation
• Reduce line rental costs and replace with manageable hosting/internet costs
• Easy to add new handsets and scale your call team as your business grows
• Transfer calls to any handset on the network or even move calls to your employee's mobile
• Plenty of business call features like call hold, voicemail-to-email, call diverting and more
• Online portal to access and manage your system easily
• Call quality equivalent & better than standard landlines

How to Prepare for a Hosted PBX Phone System

There are a few things to put on your checklist when preparing to select the right hosted PBX solution for your organisation.

Firstly, you'll need to work out how many lines you'll need – this will equal the number of lines you'll need active at one time, plus one or two more for extra wriggle room.

You'll then need to find a new business internet plan that can offer you the best speed in your area. Aim for a business grade service that provides a high amount of upload bandwidth.

Next you'll need to find a business phone system service provider that can offer you the support you need, the features you're looking for and the number of extensions you'd like at a price you're happy with. Some providers will offer trial periods or offers with no lock in contracts. These options are handy to allow testing of particular systems with your particular business requirements.

The most important thing to look for when choosing a provider is ensuring they can provide great, fast support. Some low-cost providers cannot deliver these levels of support and are only viable for very small businesses or people who are highly IT savvy and can work things out themselves when issues arise.