The seeming increase in natural disasters has been a boon to the hosted services market, which has seen vendors putting everything from customer management to business productivity on the Web.

 

While many firms tout the low-cost entry to sophisticated tools that were once the province of only the largest of firms, many organizations are looking to on-line providers as a way to ensure that business keeps moving even in the event of a catastrophic loss.

 

But while access to CRM and ERP systems is a major concern among business managers, nothing will shut down a thriving enterprise like the loss of telecommunications services. So it’s no wonder that a wealth of hosted PBX (News - Alert) service providers has entered the market over the past several years.

 

SageCom Inc. is one of the latest entrants into an increasingly crowded field. The company, based on Miami — which has had its share of natural disasters over the years — just launched a hosted PBX service in connection with its SageVone VoIP system.

 

The system essentially offers everything an in-house PBX system would, overseeing main telephone line connectivity, call center capabilities, voice mailboxes, teleconferencing operations and other services, from one of numerous locations.

 

“It’s a way for businesses to have a phone system that continues to operate no matter what happens,” said Jerry Huyghe, marketing and sales manager at SageCom during an interview with TMCnet. “When customers can’t reach a business for a week after a major disaster, they think the business is no longer in operation. That can have repercussions for years.”

 

While even a hosted system cannot ring company headquarters if it’s been destroyed by an earthquake or hurricane, it can still contact voicemail, mobile systems and remote offices to provide at least a modicum of continuity.

 

Huyghe said that while even large firms are starting to streamline IP and telecommunications operations with hosted solutions, SageCom designed its version with the SMB in mind.

 

“We’re looking for niche markets to approach,” he said. “There is a lot of interest from real estate offices because they tend to have multiple agents and remote offices. We’re looking at who’s buying now, and how we can bundle specific features and applications to different markets.”

 

SageCom also designed a lot of flexibility into the system. It’s SIP-compatible, making it interoperable with most of the feature-laden phone systems on the market. All settings are Web-based and user-configurable. It also sports an integrated Windows toolbar tied to Explorer and Outlook, providing caller ID and other features.

 

“Businesses that can’t afford $10,000 on an in-house PBX system, and pay even more to have it continuously updated and maintained, can have all the features that a Fortune 100 company has at $30 per month,” Huyghe said. “A typical PBX system requires a professional technician and several days to reconfigure the system, even if someone simply changes offices. A hosted solution is plug-and-play. Extensions can be configured day-by-day to ring on the mobile, at home or a remote location.”

 

For more information, please visit the company online at www.sagecominc.com.

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Arthur Cole is a freelance writer specializing in high-tech information and communications. To see more of his articles, visit his columnist page.