It was only a century ago that business phone systems consisted of lighted switchboards and telephone operators frantically trying to connect one call at a time. Fortunately, developments in telecommunications technology have come a long way. In today’s world of VoIP, there are two basic phone system architectures to consider, a premises-based IP-PBX and a cloud-based or hosted system. Each of these options has advantages and disadvantages, but the cloud-based, hosted solution has a unique value proposition that is beneficial for the way many businesses operate today. Consider the following benefits:
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Minimal capital investment:
With a cloud-based system you don’t have to make a large capital investment in system hardware and equipment. Your service provider owns the system’s hardware and software. You pay for your service as a monthly operating expense, leaving your capital budget available for other business needs and opportunities. -
Feature rich:
Hosted IP-PBX solutions are feature rich and have all the functions and capabilities of premises-based systems. In fact, because of their cloud-based architecture, many call routing and call handling capabilities are more easily and cost effectively implemented with a hosted solution. -
Multi-location connectivity:
Because of its cloud-based architecture all of a business’s locations can be served by a single, centralized system which will provide seamless communications among employees at all locations and complete flexibility for handling and routing calls. -
Customer control:
Hosted IP-PBX systems have sophisticated customer management capabilities that enable on-site or remote administrators to manage overall system features and functions and end users to personalize and manage their own phones. -
Scalability:
Unlike premises-based IP-PBXs, cloud-based systems have virtually unlimited growth capacity. Moreover, customers can grow their systems one line at a time and not have to pay for excess capacity that they are not using. -
Future proof:
Since hosted IP-PBX systems are part of your service providers infrastructure, upgrades to software, hardware and functionality are routinely implemented as part of overall network management, therefore providing you with access to new innovations and capabilities. -
Disaster recovery:
With a cloud-based IP-PBX you benefit from the alternate routing and redundancy capabilities inherent in your service providers network architecture. If outages occur at any of your sites your communications services can easily be re-routed to your other locations or to temporary sites to minimize disruptions to your business.
As you can see, the advantages of a hosted IP-PBX system are quite vast. One great example is the Lax Sports Network. This organization faced bandwidth challenges and saw notable benefits by leveraging Astound’s Hosted Voice solution in combination with their other services.
If you’re ready to harness the advantages of a hosted IP-PBX system, contact Astound today.
