by Richard Barrington
Organizations of all sizes are turning to VoIP business phone service as a way to save substantial amounts of money on telecommunication charges. While the primary focus when discussing VoIP office phone service is usually on the potential savings in toll charges, businesses can save even more if they select a hosted VoIP office service.
In-House or Hosted PBX Phone System?
A private branch exchange, or PBX, is the digital version of a multi-line telephone system for routing calls to multiple extensions. This can be a piece of equipment physically installed and maintained on site, or it can be vendor-run via the Internet on a hosted PBX phone system.
 |
||
 |
||
Advantages of Hosted PBX Phones
With a hosted PBX phone system, the VoIP business service vendor takes care of the PBX functions, routing calls for the user organization via the Internet. This approach offers a number of advantages, including the following:
- Lower upfront costs. With this option, there's no physical PBX to install and maintain on-site, which calls for less investment in cost, infrastructure, and labor.
- Flexibility. With a hosted PBX phone system, new extensions can be added and obsolete ones subtracted just by sending requests via the Internet, rather than having to physically alter equipment on-site
- Maintenance. All telecommunications systems need some degree of routine and remedial maintenance. A hosted VoIP office service not only saves an organization the cost of having this burden fall on the in-house IT department, but it also ensures that issues are addressed by trained specialists.
- Scalability. Systems and equipment are generally designed with a certain range of user numbers in mind. As an organization grows, a hosted PBX phone system can seamlessly accommodate the new level of usage, where an in-house PBX would eventually require replacement with a larger system.
- Automatic upgrades. VoIP business phone service is a rapidly evolving field. Rather than having to go through the disruption and cost of a series of upgrades to in-house equipment, an organization can benefit continually from the best a vendor has to offer with hosted PBX.
Conclusion
One of the defining benefits of the Internet age is that it makes information more fluid--it can flow more readily from point to point with minimal reliance on specialized user equipment. A hosted VoIP business phone system maximizes that benefit, while a system that relies on an in-house PBX represents a more incremental improvement over traditional telecommunications.
Sources:
BusinessWeek, Spring 2005: Talk Gets Cheaper
Packet 8
Vocalocity
Voip-News
Richard Barrington is a freelance writer and novelist who previously spent over twenty years as an investment industry executive.
