In this edition of Telecom Tuesdays we are going over Hosted PBX. It’s probably a term you’ve heard being thrown around, but you had no idea what it meant; the PBX part at least.
“Hosted” means that the service is being hosted elsewhere (i.e., not on your premises) by your service provider. PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange, a type of feature rich phone system that only very large, complex companies could afford and cost-justify until VoIP technology ushered in the age of Hosted PBX. Cloud Computing allows users to buy Equipment/Infrastructure or Software as a Service, so you can utilize all of the feature functionality of the traditional PBX system yet not have to buy the system (which also means that you do not have to pay for service, updates, additions, etc.).
Following are a few of the many advantages of Hosted PBX: it is far less expensive initially (with no phone switch to buy, service or maintain), it will never sunset, the system is scalable so you will never outgrow it (and you can scale back in the event reduction is needed), it allows flexibility as users can be connected to the phone system from any device (Landline, Cell or Laptop) through any internet connection, it allows you to have “Virtual Local Offices” (in Cities where you have no physical location, you simply have a Local phone number) and any ongoing Administration is simple and quick (usually no more than following a few online prompts).
The two primary drawbacks to this technology are that you never own your system outright and that as the number of employees increases, so does your monthly cost for additional seat licenses. Most feel that this is more than offset by the fact that there is no substantial capital outlay required to buy a traditional on premise system and that all ongoing expenses are accounted as OPEX instead of CAPEX.
[author_bio username=”Barry” name=”yes”]
