The popularity of softswtich and IP PBX systems is no longer open to debate. According to Infonetics (News - Alert), the cloud PBX market is expected to grow to $12 billion by 2018. This coming after the number of hosted service seats increased by 20 percent in 2013 and revenue is on track to grow by 13 percent in 2014.
The benefits of IP PBX (News - Alert) systems over legacy PBX systems are well known. Customers no longer have to dedicate a room to wiring or worry about upgrades. The service provider worries about these things instead. Adding and removing users is easy and these systems are scalable to handle large fluctuations.
In spite of this growth, there are still many holdouts clinging to their legacy IP PBX systems. According to Alan Simpson, CEO of Easy Office Phone (News - Alert), the most five common concerns about upgrading to IP PBX are a reduction in voice quality, security, scalability, the cost of installation and possible future obsolescence.
Most of these concerns are easily addressed. As long as a business has access to a high-speed, high-quality Internet connection, voice quality will be as good, if not better than on a landline. It’s possible to set up lines more secure than a landline with a combination of encryption and private Internet lines. As mentioned earlier, IP PBX is extremely scalable. The argument for hanging on to technology that’s obsolete out of fear that its successor will become obsolete does not make sense.
Concerns about upfront costs are certainly legitimate. Many vendors support installations amounting to a hybrid of IP and legacy PBX systems to smoothen the transition to an all-IP PBX system. One such vendor is E-MetroTel. Not can its solutions help customers gradually migrate to a newer system, they can also help prevent customer loss from a dated system.
Dayco is a global auto parts manufacturer that had problems with its Australian call center. It was using a legacy PBX that left many customers on hold without their calls getting answered. After the company upgraded to an E-MetroTel system, customer service improved, management had the tools it needed to manage the flow of calls and agent performance improved 20 percent.
Obviously not every company’s situation is similar to Dayco’s, but it’s likely that many are similar. For those who fit in this category, whatever money they might save from the upfront costs of a new system will be negated by the costs of unhappy customers.
Edited by Alisen Downey