In-house IP PBX Selection Guide

The heavy adoption of VoIP among businesses of all sizes has created a surge in the development of IP Communications technology. New standards, new technologies, new applications, new features are all driving this trend, which extends from end user hardware to communications infrastructure, and everything in between.

This is particularly true in the case of IP PBX systems, as IP PBX vendors are enriching their platforms to provide the latest technologies and features, often making them difficult to differentiate. That said, they each have their benefits, and depending on the size of your business, its budget, and its requirements, there is an in-house solution that is likely to meet your needs.

The argument has been made that hosted solutions offer benefits not available with on-site solutions, and while that may be true to a degree, the same argument can be made for on-premises IP PBXs. Furthermore, the theory that you had to be a large enterprise in order to benefit from and be able to afford your own IP PBX no longer carries much weight, as solutions have been scaled down to meet the needs of the SMB market as well as the largest multinational corporations. Also, many IP PBX developers have simplified the installation and maintenance of their products to allow businesses without telephony and programming experts on-site to be able to deploy them. Some, in fact, are software-based solutions that require little investment in hardware other than a server.

So, while there are alternatives out there, businesses would be wise not to dismiss owning their own communications system simply because of past myths. Still, choosing the appropriate IP PBX is a crucial business decision, and one that will shape the face of your communications for years to come. We provide the following list of IP PBX vendors as a starting point for your decision making process, but urge you to do the appropriate research, starting with each company's website, as you seek to deploy the latest IP Communications solutions.