- Definition: With Hosted PBX (Hosted VoIP), service, a business can have state-of-the-art phone system technology without having a phone system on-site. The system/box/brain, of the phone system is owned and maintained by the provider and hosted at one of their data centers while the business simply pays monthly (per user/seat). Some service providers provide the handsets as part of the service while others have the customer purchase the handsets. Hosted PBX can be offered with guaranteed voice quality when your provider also supplies a managed circuit with the service or they can also provide a non-guaranteed-quality “bring-your-own-bandwidth” solution where you can connect your system through any Internet connection.
- Best Fit: A business who wants a state-of-the-art phone system without having to purchase, manage and maintain the system. This service is especially a good fit for companies with multiple locations or remote users.
- Benefits:
- More capex for other needs. By moving a phone system from a capital expense to a monthly operating expense, a business can have more cash-on-hand for growing the company.
- Get it now. No large capex means a company doesn’t have to wait until their antiquated phone system dies. Their company can take advantages of the technology immediately.
- Less Scaling Issues. You only pay for the number of users you need this month and therefore, no more getting stuck with too big of a phone system or too small of a phone system.
- Always take advantage of the latest technology. The providers upgrade technologies throughout your service and you are always guaranteed to have the latest and greatest technology.
- If you try it and a couple years later, a new provider comes out with better technology, you simple switch. No more waiting 10 years to change systems.
- Lower Maintenance Costs. No maintenance contracts required and no internal personnel needed to manage the system.
- Lower cost to make changes. Hosted PBX systems come with a very user-friendly web portal that allows administrators to quickly make changes to the phone system, nationwide.
- Nationwide, seamless communication. Your entire company is on the same phone system platform/voicemail platform, so calls, voicemails and users are easily transferred between sites.
- Available Features with Select Providers
- Click-to-Dial off common applications such as Outlook and Salesforce.
- Unified Messaging, allowing voicemails to be sent to the users’ email.
- Call Reporting
- Call Queuing across nationwide users
- Leave a voicemail for all users, nationwide
- Soft Phones
- Screen Pops allowing the user to manipulate incoming calls from a computer screen.
- Headset-only users for call centers
- Integrated Audio, Web & Video Conferencing
- Instant Messaging (IM) Feature
- Visually see all users, if they are currently on the phone, with whom and for how long.
- Call recording
- Whisper Mode
- Many More….