A Simple Plan: Offices
How to Choose a PBX System for Your Office
The increase of hosted-private branch exchange (PBX) solutions has brought about excessive information on these virtual telephony systems. Nevertheless, small business owners have to look into the good and bad sides of both hosted PBX and on-premise PBX systems when reviewing a new system for their offices.
True Costs
On-premise systems generally call for a big upfront investment, as opposed to hosted systems which are paid for with less monthly payments. However, buyers need to look into the entire cost of ownership of the said systems besides the initial capital needed to avail of a new phone network.
Specific versus Bundled Functionality
These days, the technical capacities of hosted and on-premise PBX systems are mostly equal. One difference, though, is how said features are packaged. Hosted PBX companies often combine features and bill a fixed per-user price. In contrast, on-premise PBX predominantly offers buyers high flexibility on the features and functionality they are interested to pay for (specifically, bringing a greater degree of customization for certain users).
Should customization be a must, buyers need to make this clear from the get-go as they work with PBX service providers. Buyers might have to do some research to find a hosted provider that gives the best bundle for their needs. On the other hand, buyers need a detailed feature list for hosted providers to make sure they get a correct price quote.
Customization Convenience
Customization is typically achievable with on-premise systems, while an in-house IT pro usually superintends the system’s deployment and management. When it comes to hosted systems, customization is commonly done by the provider. Even as vendors could offer some customization, they are typically incapable of making very specific customizations for all customers.
If your system will need extreme customization, on-premise PBX could be a better suited for you. If selecting a hosted option, discuss with a vendor the specific customizations you require and what they will be able to offer.-
User Experience
To guarantee excellent quality, on-premise PBX systems will make data traffic a priority. When it comes to hosted PBX solutions, voice and data packets will normally vie for priority, which diminishes voice quality. Hosted vendors can provide a Session Border Controller (SBC) tool to help boost data quality, but this is going to dramatically increase the system’s cost and intricacies.
Tech Support Costs
If your company handles your own data at present, you may already have your own IT team, and using a hosted PBX system is unlikely to have an effect on your existing staff. Rather, this only passes the support tasks to a third-party and boosts to your ongoing support costs (instead of driving them down). If you don’t have your own IT team now, then hosted PBX may save your company from the need to create your own technical team.