IP Phone Systems or Hosted PBX? How Do You Choose?

 
Since the explosion of IP technology in the past few years, many broad new choice in phone systems have become available. From based IP phone systems to Hosted PBX solutions offered by many phone companies, how do you choose?

1. How large is my business?

Large businesses seems to draw to the economies of scale. Businesses can spread the pricing of their central phone switch across a large number of employees. Businesses can also frequently have in-house staff to support their system, and can spread those costs over a large number of users. Typically, these businesses are better served with a premise-based system. Smaller businesses don’t have the economic scale or budget, for that matter, but can benefit by taking advantage of the Hosted PBX system.

2. Do I require detailed contact center reporting and management?

If you’re running a call center with multiple agents or sales representatives constantly taking phone called and need detailed call reporting to help manage staff, you may find that the premise-based phone system works best. Most Hosted PBX systems lack these features or have very basic capabilities in this area.

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

Older phone systems use private line connections, tie lines, and other expensive phone company services to connect systems at your main offices together. However, more updated and newer systems use IP connections for this, but still require you to purchase a dedicated switch for each office. A Hosted PBX system will tie all of your offices together without the need for any phone switches or tie-lines, just your existing Internet connection and new phones.

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

Installed IP PBX systems and Hosted PBX systems have different sets of features and both offer a handful of features and updates that your old system probably doesn’t. It’s important to make a list based off of your needs and your operational challenges.

5. How much time do my people spend on the phone?

Most Hosted PBX systems charge a fee per phone or “seat” on the system which includes the ability to handle up to 2 simultaneous called to or from the user’s phone. Since the “dial-tone” is included, you don’t have the one-many concentration of phone lines to phones that you get in a traditional phone system. Hosted PBX usually makes the most sense for businesses that have a high ratio of phone lines to phones in their traditional system.

Shopping for a new phone system can be difficult. Whether you have 10 or 1,000 employees in your company, remember to always purchase phone systems based on the needs of your business and employees. We hope you found this helpful and ask yourselves these questions the next time you’re in the market for a new phone system! Remember, AeroCom represents every provider so give us a call and get a quote from one of our pricing geniuses! We promise to find you the best available prices & quotes to fit all of your telecommunications needs!