An effective phone system is critically important for the development and growth of a small business. A phone system helps businesses to communicate with customers, suppliers, colleagues, business partners and other stakeholders. Shopping for the most suitable business telephone system is therefore imperative for any business enterprise – whatever its size and scale of operations.
Traditional phone systems require analog connections and wiring to function. Hopefully, your industry location would have the analog connections and wiring already available, but if your business does not, don’t bother paying for the entire analog phone wiring installation! There is something much better out there for your business and it’s called a hosted PBX phone system. Rather than using an analog system, hosted PBX phone systems use the same local network that your computers are connected to.
Advantages of Hosted PBX Phone System
Instead of your business paying for all the hardware of a phone system and PBX services, hosted PBX vendors already have the phone system set up for you. With hosted PBX, your phone system is physically at another location, usually the location of your vendor. Your business will access the phone system via an internet connection. With hosted PBX your business doesn’t need as much space or staff or all the costs of managing your own phone system and software.
Since hosted PBX uses your internet and local computer network, it sends and receives data digitally, the same way data is transferred over the internet from computer to computer. The same IP address is used while transferring data, rather than the regular analog telephone. Using a hosted PBX system means you only have one set of wiring for both voice and data.
If you don’t want to have to deal with your phone system and need few regular changes to your phone system, hosted PBX is the ideal phone system and services for your business. However, if your business requires more control and customization of your phone system dynamics and phone system equipment, then hosted PBX may not be a good choice for your business because its purpose is to make your phone system easy for you by having it do everything for your business in relation to your phone system services. So, in a sense, your business will be giving up control of your phone system services and handing it over to hosted PBX.
Advantages of a Cloud PBX Phone System
A cloud PBX phone system hosts an entire business phone system “in the cloud”. This simply means that the entire telephone platform is hosted on the internet. The Cloud PBX system is connected to the internet while the traditional system requires you to have the hardware set up (sometimes in your business premises and other times hosted at the site of your phone service provider). Cloud-PBX costs less than the traditional PBX phone system because it is communicating over the internet and that makes the distance between the two communicating parties insignificant.
Besides, instead of investing in costly hardware, virtual PBX circles around the idea of a subscription-based service. Cloud communications are voice and data communications hosted in the service provider’s IP network. The service providers will host all of the equipment that is needed to run your Cloud phone system. As you will not be buying or owning any equipment, you will also be saved the bother of its maintenance.
You must first assess the specific needs your business has for your phone system – such as the number of extensions or lines the business requires, the choice of features. Having decided in favor of PBX, you can approach phone system providers to ask for free trials or demonstrations of the system. This demonstration will help you understand if the quality of the system is good enough for your present and future needs.
Approaching the vendors directly is useful as you can ask them about upgrade costs and system scalability. Deciding beforehand what features and accessories you require will aid in the process of evaluating the vendors. Find out from the service providers what important features they will offer for free with the system.
Even though a Cloud PBX service is the best choice for your business, choosing the right service provider is still an essential step in achieving your communications needs. Choosing your provider is crucial to availing all the benefits of cloud PBX, without getting ripped off. A host of service providers may come to you offering almost the same features, but going to a reputed and reliable provider is essential.
