Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
What are the advantages of IP PBX?
This question was asked during Bil Moore's presentation "How to Calculate the Value of a Communications Upgrade For the No-Frills SMB" during the Focus Interactive Summit: All Things Small and Mid-Sized Business.
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
4 Answers
That depends on where you are coming from. If you have a seven, eight, or nine year old PBX or key systems, the advantages would be similar to buying a modern server versus one from that era. The new products are more powerful, easier to deploy, and have more functionality.
However, there are some caveats. Vendors have developed migration paths from their old devices to more modern systems. Their goal is to entice the customer to stay with their system, and like other technologies, some paths are better than others. So if your system has been working fine, you may opt for that approach. There are also some hidden costs with the new switches. To take advantage of those features, a company may need to buy more than the IP PBX. They may need to make investments in their infrastructure: higher speed networks, more sophisticated phones, and better management tools.
In general, businesses wait until the end of life for their existing voice system before dumping what they have for an IP PBX. My recommendation would be to call in a consultant skilled in this area and have the firm help you determine whether or not, it is time to make the switch to an IP switch.
In addition to Paul's comment, an IP PBX should be less costly than what you have now. This may not require a capital investment, so the financial commitment may be relatively manageable. Once you get past that, you should have feature parity - or better - compared to what you have now. So, if you're getting more, that will be an upgrade.
To switch to a IP PBX will immediately generate savings and provide better functionality to your users. You can replace some or all your lines by SIP Trunks which are cheaper than regular phone lines. They also help you dimension your phone system so you can handle peaks and route your traffic to home phones or cell phones in the event of a power outage at the office. To learn about open standards based IP PBX solutions http://www.abptech.com/ipbx_solutions/
You should buy from a reseller with experience that will help you get the most value out of your new system. To find resellers check out http://www.abptech.com/aboutus/find_reseller.php
The IP PBX presents a wealth of benefits to reap from. The cutting edge features and enhanced communication greatly benefit business relations and increase customer retention.
A few of the benefits of Hosted IP PBX systems are:
1. Low total cost of ownership- The Hosted PBX systems give reduced ownership costs as there is no need to buy any expensive hardware or software. All the installation costs, purchasing costs and maintenance costs are drastically reduced as compared to the premise based PBX systems.
2. Cheaper Calls- The call rates are much lower than the traditional phone systems. Since all the voice traffic is transferred over the IP, it greatly cuts down calling charges. Calls between extensions are usually free.
http://www.therealpbx.com/business-pbx.html
3. Desired area code- Hosted PBX service providers allow you to choose any area code for your number that is not your geographical area code. Thus you can save thousands of dollars on long distance calling. It is an ideal solution for business enterprises that have multiple branches in different locations.
4. No Hassles- One of the best advantages of Hosted PBX systems is that it relieves businesses from the hassles of installing and maintaining the PBX equipments. There is no hardware or software requirement for Hosted PBX. All the data is hosted over a web interface. There is no need of expert staff to monitor and upgrade the PBX system. Thus Hosted IP PBX systems are truly hassle-free.
http://www.therealpbx.com/features.html
Answer This Question