Five Important Questions to Ask When Shopping for Hosted PBX

Voice over IP, or VoIP, has exploded in recent years and have created an array of new choices in phone systems available. This includes IP phone systems from traditional manufacturers, server based IP phone systems and Hosted PBX solutions that are offered from various telephone companies, ISP’s and other service providers. How do you choose? Is this the right time for your business to upgrade? Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before you make the choice to Hosted PBX!

1. Is my existing phone system at end of life?

Phone systems typically last 6-8 years, but if yours is still functioning well and meeting your needs, why take on the added expense of a new system? For you, it may be better to wait until service and repair bills begin to increase due to system age or your system no longer provides the features you need. If repair bills are spiraling out of control, it may be time to look at a new system.

2. What features exactly do I need in a new phone system?

Installed IP PBX systems and Hosted PBX systems have different feature sets, and both offer a bevy of features your old system doesn’t. It’s prudent to make a list of what your needs are based upon your operational challenges and not be lured into buying a system because of a feature that may be cool, but doesn’t fulfill a business need and probably will never be used.

3. How large is my business?

Large businesses enjoy economies of scale: They can spread the purchase price of their central phone switch across a large number of employees. They also frequently have in-house staff to support their system, and can spread those costs over a large number of users. These large businesses usually (though not always) are better served with a premise based system. Smaller businesses don’t have these economies of scale and can benefit by taking advantage of these economies by using a Hosted PBX solution.

4. Are my employees centrally located, or do I have multiple offices?

Older phone systems use private line connections, tie lines, and other expensive telephone company services to connect systems at your main and satellite offices together. Newer systems usually use IP connections for this, but may still require you to purchase a dedicated switch for each office. Some will only need a single central switch. A Hosted PBX will tie all your offices together without the need for any phone switches or tie-lines, just your existing Internet connection and new phones.

5. Do I have staff working from home?

Because Hosted PBX systems use the cloud to connect the phone to the central system, phones can typically be connected to any internet connection and function just like they would in the office, with full access to features, attendants and voice mail systems. This may or may not be true of premise based systems.