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Dispelling the Myths Surrounding Virtual PBX Deployments

September 20, 2011

By Susan J. Campbell - Virtual PBX Contributing Editor

The migration to a virtual PBX infrastructure can offer significant benefits to a company, yet specific fears have kept some businesses hooked on their old phone systems. By dispelling some of these myths, the small business may be more inclined to make the move to VoIP phone services and enjoy the lower costs. 



This Nextiva white paper explores five myths about virtual PBX that are preventing some companies from making the transition. The first and perhaps most common myth is that the savings realized are actually very minimal. Without significant demonstrated savings, most companies won’t make operational changes. The virtual PBX actually offers savings of at least 50 percent over traditional phone services. 

These savings are driven through unlimited plans that include local and long distance calling. No extra monthly fees or surprises appear on the phone bill, regardless of call originations or destinations in the states. International rates are also more competitive and there is no onsite phone system to manage that could increase maintenance costs. 

Another common misconception surrounding the virtual PBX is unacceptable or inferior call quality. VoIP technology lends itself to greater call clarity as the analog voice signal is converted to a digital format to compress and translate over the Internet. Voice traffic is prioritized over data to ensure higher quality. Voice quality is actually the direct result of broadband quality, which should be optimized to get the most out of the virtual PBX. 

The virtual PBX is often assumed to be better suited for techies and larger businesses. In reality, smaller businesses tend to rely more heavily on mobility due to the fact that their VoIP services offer extensive flexibility and scalability. Small businesses can also benefit from the cost of the virtual PBX as the basic service is generally 70 percent less than traditional phone systems. 

Additionally, setup and management is often assumed to be costly and difficult with a virtual PBX. In reality, no VoIP plans require any hardware on site that must be managed by the customer. Implementation is easy as the virtual PBX leverages broadband connections and Internet connectivity to deploy. 

Finally, this new technology available through the virtual PBX is sometimes assumed to be more troublesome. Companies don’t want to be the first to try out new technologies, yet VoIP has been in existence since the mid-90s and has been readily embraced by many small businesses as their communication method of choice. The virtual PBX is rapidly gaining ground as analog shipments decline.

As the small business begins to understand the truth surrounding VoIP services and virtual PBX, they can more readily accept and deploy this technology.


Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for virtual-pbx and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein

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