So, it’s that time again, time to replace your company’s phone system – what are your options? Do you invest in another on-premises PBX (private branch exchange) system that includes all the capabilities to support your business today, including advanced call management and routing, unified messaging, and other features that have emerged since the last time you bought a PBX? With the rising costs of equipment, coupled with necessary maintenance requirements and the opportunity costs of having your in-house team manage the system, it might just be time to consider a cloud-based, or virtual PBX for your organization.
Retain Ownership of your Number
You might encounter resistance from management and marketing regarding this change, with concerns that you will be forced to get new corporate phone numbers, rendering corporate contact information on all marketing materials obsolete. But rest assured – you can decide whether to obtain new local or toll free numbers (if it’s time for a change) or you can port or reroute your current line(s) – so there is no disruption of publicized company contact and advertising information.
Lose the Hardware
For many organizations, a move to a hosted solution allows them to better manage limited capital expense budgets, moving instead to an OPEX model. This allows for investment in the organization that can’t be replicated via other solutions. Losing the hardware also frees the IT team to focus their scarcest resource, time, on those projects that add real strategic value to the organization. It’s tough to make the case that managing hardware represents the best use of their time. Moving hardware to the cloud also has implications for the ease and frequency of system updates – adding new capabilities and new levels of reliability on timelines that would be impossible to maintain with on-prem solutions.
Flexible Work Options
Many of today’s employees find themselves telecommuting, whether due to corporate travel restrictions or a flexible work-from-home scenario. Obviously, a traditional PBX doesn’t have the capability to extend its equipment to your employees’ home office or hotel. On the other hand, a virtual PBX can support employees at remote locations. You can easily transfer calls from the the office to a home office and to cell phones. With the right virtual PBX system, you can even monitor or block calls and control the order in which calls are forwarded to your remote employees.
Greater Functionality with each Number
Virtual PBX systems provide all the standard features and services you would expect from traditional PBX phone systems, such as call waiting and caller ID, and the ability to host conference calls. Additionally, cloud-based or virtual PBX systems include many more options like auto-attendant, call monitoring and recording, unified call detail records, and unified messaging. Virtual systems can also include web-based management and sophisticated call routing tools along with all the unified communication features an enterprise needs to customize communication services to their unique business requirements.
There’s never been a better time to make the leap to the cloud. Investing in a virtual PBX will allow your company to maintain and expand its existing phone extensions and overall system, with reduced overhead and at a lower monthly cost. These systems are highly flexible and customizable, and deliver enhanced features that can improve the way your company does business.
