Top 7 Benefits of Hosted PBX for Your Business

Hosted PBX phone systems are brimming with benefits for businesses of all sizes, and in particular SMEs. Business environments have changed drastically over the past decade or so, and indeed they are continuing to evolve just as rapidly as we venture now into the unknown world of 2018.

For a long time now, businesses have wanted much more from their telephone system than simply ten digits and a dial tone. Indeed, in the modern world of business communications, professionals expect a whole host of rich VoIP features, from music on hold to auto attendant to email access and call queuing software.

What is Hosted PBX?

The first question is what does cloud PBX mean? Cloud PBX (Cloud-based Private Branch Exchange) is a virtual internet phone system, which automatically answers all calls and routes them to the correct department or user extension.

PBX is hosted in the cloud, offering one platform for on -the- go phone usage for your business. Consequently, it is increasingly popular for this phone service to replace outdated, expensive office phone systems. There are several benefits to switching to PBX, but here are the top five reasons your business should absolutely consider making the move to hosted PBX today.

Traditionally, for the SME, such features were prohibitively expensive to implement on an in-house phone system, and thusly were, in the most part, the reserve of the large corporation. The reason is simple – with traditional telephony, in order to enjoy benefits of hosted PBX, the firm needs to invest in extensive wiring and cabling to connect to the local carrier, huge amounts of data center space, expensive desk phones, and much more overpriced equipment besides. Put simply, all this gear prices the cash-conscious SME out of the market.

Top 7 Benefits of Hosted PBX

These days, however, SMEs need not fear, for there are much more affordable solutions that can be utilized and accessed by businesses of all sizes.

It will come as no surprise, I’m sure, to learn that these solutions operate using cloud technology. As with all cloud-based solutions, one of the main benefits of Hosted PBX is of course the cost savings that can be incurred.

Rather than having to fork out a small fortune for hundreds of meters of cabling, lorry-loads of equipment and other expensive implementation of infrastructure, by opting for a hosted PBX cloud-based solution, the SME can simply hire such things, and gain seamless, instant access to them off-site via an internet connection.

When you consider the benefits of hosted phone system for your business or enterprise, think about all the money and time that can be saved running and maintaining a telephone system, then it’s very easy to understand how hosted PBX solutions have become so popular in the modern business environment. Indeed, Infonetics Research expects that the cloud PBX and unified communication services market will be worth $12 billion in 2018.

Related: Why Switch Landline to VoIP is Essential for Your Business?

If you’re running a small business that has yet to make the switch to cloud PBX phone system, then you will undoubtedly be spending a lot of time, money and effort just in the maintenance of your telephone system. Indeed, your IT resources will probably be pushed to the limit just keeping everything up and running, when they could be more profitably used for building your business and gaining customers.

If this is you, then perhaps it’s time that you migrated to the cloud, where you will immediately start enjoying all 7 benefits of hosted PBX for small businesses we’ve listed below.

1. Small Up-Front Capital Requirements

Since the need to furnish your office building with expensive cabling, equipment and infrastructure is negated, so too is the cost of such things. You simply hook up to the cloud, and off you go.

Related: On-Premise Phone System vs Cloud Phone System

2. Hosted PBX is More Cost Effective

For one all-inclusive low monthly price, your office will have a full-featured business phone system plus unlimited domestic and international calling. This is much more cost effective than traditional phone plans where your business has to pick and choose the features they need and deal with extra charges each month.

Related: VoIP vs Analog Phone System

Hosted PBX with net2phone offers the phones your business needs to operate, as well as connection to existing compatible phones and mobile phones, so there are no huge initial costs to start up service. Users also never have to worry about additional hidden fees or going over minutes.

3. Low Maintenance Costs

Once you’re up and running with hosted PBX, you will not need to worry about the ongoing maintenance of your phone lines, nor indeed about employing an IT team to manage the system, as this will all be taken care of by your service provider.

4. Increased Uptime

As a direct result of having all your maintenance taken care of off-site, your company will consequently experience more uptime, since the hosted PBX system will not need to be taken offline for maintenance, repairs and updates.

5. Scalability

One of the most attractive features of hosted PBX for small businesses is that the system is ultimately scalable, without ever incurring extra costs for extra hardware and infrastructure. In fact, your PBX system will grow seamlessly with your business, meaning that you can add more phone lines, extensions and mobile connections as and when required, with no obligation to continue the extended service should your business not require it.

Related: Features of Hosted PBX for Small Businesses

6. Reliability

Hosted PBX systems are much more reliable now than they were in the past. Indeed, some people are still under the false assumption that voice quality is lacking with PBX. While that may have been the case when the technology was first used, the fact is that now hosted PBX can be counted on entirely to connect every call without lagging response times, delays or any lapse in call quality.

7. Advanced Features

Advanced calling features are of course essential in the modern business world, and hosted PBX provides them. With access to voicemail and email, auto attendant, music on hold, directory, remote call management and voice messaging, there’s not much that hosted PBX can’t do.

In addition, should you opt for a full unified comms package, then further features are enabled, including presence, messaging, conferencing, interactivity between voicemail and email, analytics and much more besides. This enables the SME to provide their customers and callers with a much better, faster and safer service.

Additional Advantages Of Hosted PBX For SMEs

Custom Number

When you switch to a virtual PBX, you can keep the local business phone number that clients already recognize. This is a huge advantage, as it will obviously be a rather large headache to try and let all of your clients and business partners know that you have changed your number — indeed, you may lose business and/or money in this process, especially if you have invested a lot in the past on advertising your old number.

Flexibility

Modern business is often no longer confined to a single location. You will no doubt have employees that work from home, you will have field workers, and there may even certain situations where either yourself or one of your colleagues may be required to work — or at least be contactable — overseas. The hosted PBX system enables this. No matter where you or your employees find themselves in the world, so long as there is an internet connection, they are able to dial into the business network as easily as if they were sat at their office desks.

Configurable With Mobiles and Tablets

Here is where your hosted PBX will come swinging into the rescue once more. Your enterprise phone system can be configured so that it connects with mobiles and tablets alongside any office phones or computers, providing almost unlimited flexibility for businesses with personnel who perform their jobs away from the office, but still rely on communication.

Business Continuity

With traditional telephone systems, if the power goes out, so too do the phone lines. But with hosted PBX this isn’t the case. Since the system is protected off-site in a hosted environment, your flow of communications will never suffer in the event of a disaster. Indeed, uptime guarantees come as part and parcel with hosted PBX packages, which means that anything else like heavy call volume will not affect the connection.

Local Presence

With hosted PBX you can set up as many different virtual phone numbers as you wish, which all route to the same central phone system. This means that no matter where in the world your customer is located — be it Paris, New York, Cumbria or Cornwall — you can create the impression of having a local presence by offering local phone numbers that your clients will call.