The rapid migration of voice communications to IP technology that is currently taking place has been steadily and fundamentally transforming the options of enterprise customers for effective and efficient communications solutions. As an example of this phenomenon, Hosted PBX can offer new alternatives to both proprietary systems and dedicated voice services, in addition to major improvements in both productivity and business operations thanks to new IP-based capabilities and the tremendous ease with which these capabilities can now be integrated with business processes as well as formerly separate data systems and networks.

Business leaders from companies of all different sizes are now beginning to base their business communications strategies on and to consider the functional and financial impacts of alternative architectures such as Hosted IP PBX (News - Alert) service, as opposed to the more traditional purchase of a premises-based IP PBX.

It is true that both of these solutions may offer similar sets of features and applications, but there are also many other issues involved here—issues such as support, management, robustness, flexibility, continuity and lifecycles. In addition to all this, there is also the total cost of ownership which all buyers must carefully include in their decision-making process. By merely comparing the cost of purchasing equipment against a monthly charge per seat, the derived results can often be quite misleading.