Hosted PBX Featured Articles

Software Advice, a VoIP and telecom consulting firm, recently released its annual Small Business VoIP BuyerView report. In the report, the firm studied hundreds of small business to determine their pain points regarding the use of communications systems. From there, it could determine the primary reasons why companies switched to hosted PBX frameworks.

According to analysis of the issue at MyPBX, the report makes it clear that many companies still rely on public switched telephone networks—those that often relying on regional or local telephone operators. A total of 31 percent still use PSTN; however, another 58 percent are considering a move to PBX (News - Alert) for the first time.

So what is driving those companies to consider a switch? More than 15 percent of respondents said they desire, more than anything, greater reliability with their business telephone networks. Following that, about 15 percent of respondents said they can see company growth and lower prices in their futures as a result of PBX adoption. MyPBX confirms the bulk of companies desire better connectivity and capacity, and the flexibility of a PBX system can solve those problems by making it easier to add phone lines and include features that PSTN may not be able to handle.

Advanced features that can come with PBX include the use of an auto attendant that will transfer calls to an extension without the need of an operator, the ability to complete conference calls, call recording, and the ability to place faxes through the Internet. These features are apparently attractive as entire packages because 76 percent of study respondents said they would be interested in purchasing product suites that would combine such features into single unified communications packages.

Even more telling is the extreme preference among respondents for cloud-based communications packages. Of the hundreds in the study, not a single respondent indicated that he or she explicitly wanted to use an on-premises PBX product. Nearly a quarter—23 percent—said they had no preference for on-premises or cloud-based, but the additional 77 percent said outright that they wanted only Web-based communications products.

Those responses follow an overall trend of growth in the hosted PBX market. Businesses are flocking to turnkey products because they are easier to use and can save them money. They can also offer a lessening of responsibility on the part of businesses because they will not need a dedicated IT team to handle system servers and troubleshoot issues. Outside hosting companies manage that on their end and simply deliver communications tools through the pipe. Specialization on each end can boost productivity and lower costs for all involved, and companies can concentrate on creating quality products and assisting their customers.