What is a Hosted Phone System and how does it effect my business?
A hosted telephone system can be described as a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone system that is hosted in a highly secure off-site data center. This means that it is a unified, feature-rich communications solution that transmits outbound and inbound calls over the Internet.
When businesses leverage a PBX system, they can take advantage of a robust business communication solution without the space requirements and equipment costs that are often associated with premise systems.
When compared to a full-blown traditional PBX system, cloud-based communications solutions are much easier to scale up or down based on present and future needs. You can easily add or remove extensions when employees join or leave the company or department.
When businesses implement a cloud-based communications solution, the initial investment will be minimal. This is because you won’t need to purchase any equipment. This means that you won’t be faced with a situation where you have to sacrifice multiple features or functionality to keep costs down.
Hosted telephone systems are mostly sophisticated turn-key unified communications solutions that come with all the standard features you come to expect, but not the high operational expenses that are synonymous with traditional PBX systems.
This translates into zero surprises down the road as all the maintenance, updates, and upgrades will be the responsibility of your provider. You will only be responsible for the monthly service charges that are agreed to before signing a contract with an established vendor.
It is often considered to be a disadvantage to host enterprise IP phone systems on the cloud because of security. However, when you partner with an established hosted telephony vendor, you will benefit from the extensive skills and experience of leading security professionals who are well equipped to better secure your communications infrastructure.
As your enterprise IP phone system will be hosted on the cloud, it will be easy to embrace remote workers while staying contacted to staff on the field. For example, if you are about to leave the office and are interrupted by a phone call, you do not have to stay at your desk. Instead, you can take advantage of mobile twinning and transfer the current call from your desk phone to your smartphone and continue the conversation on the go.
As hosted telephone systems evolve, your business can also leverage new features as they are released. As new projects come up, you can also seamlessly create groups on the network across different sites, states, and countries. This will help boost productivity in the digital age while having a positive impact on your bottom line.
At Verticomm, we have been working with hosted phone systems, both internally and externally, for many years. To learn more about cloud-based unified communications solutions and how they can help your business grow, reach out to one of our in-house experts.