Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
When do hosted voip solutions make sense for large offices?
We have an office of about 300 people and are considering switching to a voip system. I’m interested in hosted systems, but people have been telling me that an on-premise system makes the most sense because of the size of my business. When does a hosted voip solution make sense for a large office? I don’t want to have to redirect a lot of my IT resources to support an on-premise PBX. Is there any system that is in between?
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
15 Answers
For a business of your size, hosted is definitely a viable option, especially if you have multiple locations. You're certainly large enough to warrant an IP PBX, but hosted can do the job just as well. A lot of this depends on what's important to you and how much trust you're willing to place with both hosted and IP technology.
The main reason enterprises stick with on-prem telephony is a preference to own the hardware. This give them a better sense of control and security about communications. They also prefer this if they have a decent IT team in place that can manage the system.
Shifting to hosted makes sense in a number of scenarios. One would be when the legacy system is up for replacement - it's the ideal time to think about the bigger picture, as VoIP probably wasn't on your radar when that PBX was acquired. The same is true if your phone system is maxed out and you need more capacity for a growing business.
Another scenario would be economics. If you're in a cost-reduction mode, it becomes harder to justify a capital expense, especially when cheaper alternatives exist. The same is true for IT support. If you're looking to cut IT budgets, the hosted route is a great way to go.
Finally, you may simply be at a point where you see the value of IP-based communications, and recognize the limitations of legacy systems. In this case, it's not a cost-based decision - it's a strategic decision that goes beyond IT.
There are lots of great hosted providers out there, and as with anything else, you need to do your homework. On that note, we're in the process of producing the 2010 SMB Buyer's Guide, and that will include a lot of analysis about hosted providers. You should make a point of getting that when it's published.
Hi Chuck, In answer to your question. Yes there is a system that is in between hosted and premise. Star 2 Star provides an on-site "PBX" which supports normal telephony functions including paging and internal intercom calls, faxes, and other telephony functions. It is hosted in the sense that it provides all of your telephone connections/lines, end to end and hosts your voice mail applications, ACD, find me follow me and remote user/site connections. Really pretty unique in the industry right now. The system is maintained via web portal and is very friendly. Give me a call if you want to discuss.
I agree with Jon's post (I'm not sure I understand steve's explanation of a hosted system. For a size example, we replaced 67 different Nortel PBXs for Durham, NC City Government converting over 1800 users to hosted managed service.
The deciding factors were that they could not afford the capital expense of purchasing an on-site system and they are also saving the expense of managing so many systems.
With the same monthly expense that they were spending on simple dialtone, they got a lease for all new phones and tens of new data switches plus our monthly service and support.
This argument has been around for decades - Centrex or PBX. Hosted or PBX. is there really a difference here. And it is the same argument, you pay the capital up front, or you pay the high monthly fee.
I will caveate this with one thing that is missing - it's all financing. For instance, Schools would never fair well with hosted, as they look to lower monthly expense and buy with capital they received from bonds and levies. I'm surprised to see a government agency not seeing that they could finance the purchase of those phones, and other capital equipment.
However, there is a place for both of these systems, and each entity must look at their own bottom line. It's easy to get caught up in this argument, but the bottom line is the economics of it all - and numbers are numbers, which can be put to pen and paper in any way to tell the story. If you aren't running your own numbers, will you really be able to make a good business decision.
My bet is Hosted services play a niche market long term. But it has it's place today.
Another option you can consider is a managed solution. It is the best of both worlds, all the benefits of on prem equipment, do not have to purchase any equipment, no bandwidth worries, 99.999% uptime, no single point of failure as with hosted. All administration is done by us, or if you wish you can administer. Less expensive than hosted, technology refreshment at any time. System that we recommend is ShoreTel, best IP telephone system on the market, according to Nemartes research. Feel free to contact me for additional information. Good Luck.
This decision might be based on the practise of your business. If your phone system is very dynamic it might make sense for a hosted system. Then the hosting service is responsible for the varied and many changes that are required.
I have managed call centers as well as small offices and each has obviously a differing requirement. The call centers IVR trees and users changed practically daily, the small offices sometimes went for months even years without a change in menus, IVR's etc.
Your decision will be based on many considerations but if flexibility and dynamics are 2 of them you might be better served with a hosted system.
The answer depends upon how much control and customization you need and how much on-site telecom expertise you have in-house.
The financial analysis of Hosted Vs Premise base VoIP solutions generally favors a Hosted solution in the early years (years 1-5) because of the low up front expense. After year 5 the Premise solution becomes more economical because Premise solutions generally have a lower monthly cost. Usually, an equipment lease has a $1.00 buy out at the end of year 5 and your company would then own the equipment free and clear. However, you would own equipment that is 5 years old and in telecom years, that is very old.
If you need a lot of customization, then you will probably need a Premise based solution. It really depends on how much customization you need. Hosted VoIP systems offer a lot of control and you may be able to get the control you need from a Hosted system.
Hosted phone systems are much easier to implement and maintain, especially when you have multiple physical locations. A Hosted solution also provides more future proofing protection as the Service Provider rolls out system updates, your company automatically benefits.
Finally, redundancy is important. If you go with a Premise based solution, you will not have redundancy unless you have a duplicate facility in a separate location. Many Hosted VoIP providers have duplicate facilities, at least the good ones do.
Hosted vs In-House.. Is always the key question, there are benefits for both... I am glad to see that you already understand the benefits of IP technology for a flexible/ scalable platform..
Please find a few ideas for you, I would recommend that you look at both options... Get pricing / timescales/ customisation.. before making your decision..
Take a look at some questions you should ask companies from the link below.. http://www.cosmocom.com/Solutions/special/LookforCC.htm
Working for a Vendor that delivers both on -premise and hosted (through service providers)..for call centre environments, we have come across this question regularly
Do you have the facilities to maintain and support an on –premise system?
I have listed below some of different advantages of each..
HOSTED
Hosted Contact Centre is a flexible model for managing your contact centre operations. Hosting is the most cost effective, rapid time to market way to set up a call centre allowing organisations to utilise the latest contact centre technology on a pay-as-you-go basis without capital expenditure.
• An OPEX-based (Operating Expense), ‘pay as you use’ model in-synch with real usage creating true agent optimisation.
• On-demand access to the latest applications and technologies
• The ability to trial new business strategies at lower cost and risk
• In-built business continuity and disaster recovery
• Guaranteed service levels (including upgrades and maintenance)
• Resilience (hosted solutions are housed on highly resilient server architectures offering full redundancy)
• Access to specialists without the need to recruit in-house IT specialists
IN-HOUSE
Using IP technology In-house, you can virtualised your own platform to deliver benefits, so you will have the comfort and knowledge that key services are being maintained by your own personnel.
You may choose In-House
• For mission-critical applications, many organisations still like the comfort of knowing that technology is under their control within their own IT environment.
• Once the capital cost of purchased equipment is written off, cost-of-ownership may fall
• A desire to retain in-house models because IT teams have built up extensive in-house knowledge and technical expertise
• Some organisations are still uncomfortable with the idea of key services being maintained by third party personnel
MANAGED
For those who like to own their own systems and software but also like the idea of someone else maintaining it for them, there is an another alternative – the managed service. Specialist managed service providers can deploy a dedicated installation on a client site or at a service provider’s premises equally effectively and many leading service providers are now offering a fully managed service as part of their hosted service portfolios.
Hope this helps
If you would like to learn more, please do not hesitate contact us
Web: www.cosmocom.co.uk
Tel: +441372 700810
A tough decision. Par for par, I think a good hosted VoIP solution will give you everything you need and more than you can get in a premises VoIP solution. Size doesn't really matter, here.
Things you need to consider are:
1- How much will it cost you to implement a premises solution. Keep in mind that the costs aren't limited to the phones and the IP PBX. There are infrastructure costs, installation and configuration costs, ongoing maintenance, hiring and training of qualified in house staff, software costs, etc. All of these need to be calculated.
2- Compare those costs with the equivalent costs of going with a hosted solution. In many cases, the latter will bundle in everything for a single monthly fee. Moreover, if they offer a soft-client solution, deployment and maintenance is easy.
3- Determine where the crossover point is. You may start with a hosted solution and then discover as your company grows that there is a threshold where an in-house solution starts to make more sense.
Hope this helps.
There is no clear cut answer due to individual complexities here, but your thinking in evaluating a hosted solution is solid. For companies of 300, premise based and hosted based solutions can look a lot alike in terms of cost. The decision should come down to convenience, business continuity needs, op-ex vs cap-ex preference, the workload of your IT staff, initiatives that you may have on your radar outside of this project, complexity of your infrastructure, and a whole host of other criteria - each of which are unique to each company and solution. Seek a hosted VoIP provider that can coach you through this decision and that will give you meaningful insight so that you can make an informed decision.
Hi,
I recommend PBX Plus which is offering Hosted PBX Services for all types of businesses in an affordable price with so many advanced features like call forwarding, free speech recognition, voicemail and voicemail transcription, eFAX, unlimited extensions and sub-extensions etc. They offers coverage in 40 countries.
The drag and drop designer can be used to configure PBX in just 10 to 15 minutes. For a limited period they are offering a free US or UK number with unlimited minutes to your account.
I suggest you to sign-up and review the site for more features and build your phone system with unlimited trail and testing.
Pbxplus (www.pbxplus.com) is really awesome.
Chuck:
The answer is to host YOURSELF with the help of your IP PBX vendor.
You should buy an on-premise based IP PBX (that supports SIP Trunking) of your choice - and install it in a datacenter; run twice as much (redundant) bandwidth as you think you need via metro ethernet or MPLS between office and datacenter - and then pay someone to manage it for you - and run it off of SIP trunks. Then lease it for 36 months.
You will have all the benefit of the system with all the bells and whistles as a leading IP PBX can provide - you will have savings from SIP trunks (30 to 70% per month - the savings from the SIP might just pay the lease for the IP PBX) - and here's the best part - on month 37 - your firm will own it free-and-clear.
Sincerely,
Neil Darling
Broadsoft's underlying technology is scalable to any size. I have a number of accounts largr than your office that we manage. It makes sense to do Hosted IP PBX if you do not have the staff or do not wish to redirect their energies by managing a premise based solution. I'd be happy to discuss with you offline if you have interest.
Todd
HI chuck, IT as well as Communication is moving into cloud. Hosted PBX are form of cloud communication. So irrespective of the size of the organization, Cloud communication seems to be the future preferred form of communication service. CaaS ( Communication as a service ) is already a buzz word in the telecom industry following the IaaS, PaaS and SaaS in the IT industry. That is for the trends. Looking from other angles, the Hosted PBX makes available the latest features, prevents risk due to technological obsoloscense, reduces your inhouse resources and helps your organization to stay focussed on its core competencies. If you need to discuss this more do let me know.
If you have a large office in terms of multiple locations, a VoIP system is significantly better. If you have different locations that are already connected on a LAN or WAN, a VoIP system will allow you to share the full features of your phone system across all your locations.
A VoIP PBX is a premise-based system. It uses VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) to connect all the phones in the office, but still needs specific telephone hardware to connect to the external telephone network.
A good source to learn more about VoIP and Hosted Phone Services is this buyer’s guide: www.buyerzone.com/telecom-equipment/voip-phone-systems/bg-voip-phone-systems-...
Answer This Question