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Today’s businesses, both large and small, are facing competition on a scale undreamed of in the past. The main reason for this is the introduction, thanks in large part to the Internet, of a truly global marketplace. Customers are no longer limited to a particular geographic region, but may be located halfway across the world. This means, of course, that competition occurs not just on a local level but across great distances.
For small businesses, this new paradigm is both a tremendous opportunity (potential to market products to highly targeted niches, for example) and a significant challenge (how to best serve customers from different cultures with different ideas of what customer service means, for example).
One tool that’s been available to companies for many years is the business phone system. However it is set up and maintained, the phone system is an integral part of any business, allowing customers to reach reps, call centers to perform outbound sales campaigns, and employees to communicate with each other even when not in physical proximity.
Yet, traditionally, phone systems were often both expensive and clunky in terms of performing the functions mentioned above. This fact has been brought into the spotlight as other avenues of communications—e-mail, mobile phones, instant messaging, videoconferencing—have entered the picture. In order to remain useful and help companies stay nimble, business phone systems must adapt too.
And adapt they have. Thanks to the introduction of IP-based systems—which send voice and data over computer networks—the advanced features of public branch exchange (PBX  ) systems are now accessible to many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in addition to Fortune 500 enterprises.
Despite the cost-savings and advanced features associated with an IP-PBX ( News - Alert), however, some smaller companies find that maintaining a phone system on-premise continues to price them out of the market. So what’s an SMB to do? An increasingly popular option is subscribing to a hosted PBX service, which outsources both deployment and maintenance to a provider.
Hosted PBXs offer four main advantages over on-premise systems, as summarized in the tables below.
Simplicity
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Hosted PBX
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On-premise PBX
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Because the equipment needed to run the phone system is located off-site, and managed by someone else, there’s no need to have on-site IT staff for troubleshooting, nor do you have to wait for technicians to be available. Support is available 24/7, and the system just works—so you can concentrate on your core business, nor your phone system.
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All the equipment associated with the PBX—servers, cables, routers, etc.—must be installed and maintained by company staff, or by a technician handled to take care of it. This is expensive, both in terms of dollars and time. If the system experiences glitches or goes down, getting things back up and running may be a slow process.
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Scalability
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Hosted PBX
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On-premise PBX
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Using any standard Web browser, you can access your account and perform tasks like adding lines and extensions, or configuring an auto-attendant to handle spikes in call volume. IP-based technology makes this quick scalability possible, so your company can quickly respond to market changes.
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If you choose to maintain the PBX on-site, you’re responsible for the physical modifications needed to, say, add a new line or extension. Adding or modifying hardware can be both expensive and time-consuming.
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Cost
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Hosted PBX
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On premise PBX
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With a hosted solution, you pay a flat subscription rate, which includes equipment, support and upkeep needed for your business phone system. In other words, it eliminates capital expenditures (CAPEX) and greatly reduces operating expenditures (OPEX ( News - Alert)). |
When the phone system is located on-premise, that means your company must not only buy all the equipment needed to set the system up, but also pay for IT staff. Again, this can be a timely and monetarily costly endeavor.
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Portability
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Hosted PBX
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On-premise PBX
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Hosted IP-PBXs bring new meaning to the term “mobility.” Any phone, anywhere, plugged into any nternet connection, can be used to access the business phone system. Phone functions also can be accessed from mobile devices, like cell phones and PDAs. For SMBs especially, being able to work from any location is a real boon, and can make the difference between staying competitive or not.
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Traditional, hardware-based, on-premise PBXs are limiting in many ways. One of these is its inability to provide access to employees when they’re outside the office. External access in many cases is limited to checking voicemail, but don’t provide the benefits of, for example, being able to dial from a the business number to maintain a professional appearance or answering calls when not in the office.
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Private Branch Exchange (PBX) | X | | Originally, telephone features were provided by telephone central office switching systems, often called CENTREX.�PBX systems emerged as customers wanted to have more calling features and control over...more |
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