This article was written by Strategic Online Marketing Services
As a digital marketing agency, we receive multiple calls daily, which is one of the reasons we look to future proof our business telecoms with a cloud based PBX. Buying and maintaining a traditional switchboard or PBX service is an expensive exercise, and these costs can increase significantly when you include the wiring, equipment, proprietary phones and installation fees. With a cloud based PBX, all you need is a reliable internet connection. It ticks all the boxes for being simple, easy and cost-effective.
We have recently gone through the process of moving our system over to Switch Telecom, and have been incredibly impressed by the service, affordability, set-up ease and functionality. Switch Telecom uses VoIP technology to provide a fully managed and customisable PBX solution.
What is a Cloud PBX?
Cloud PBX (Private Branch Exchange), also known as hosted PBX or virtual PBX, is a virtual phone system that provides a secure and reliable business phone system through the internet. It is not physically onsite of the business and requires no additional equipment.
How Does it Work?
A Hosted Switchboard works in conjunction with a Switch Telecom Business Trunk. You can select between a single telephone number or a range of telephone numbers to facilitate direct dialling towards multiple extensions. The solution works with most SIP handsets and softphones.
This system has been a fantastic solution for our company of six staff members; however, it can cater for all sizes – from a small home office with one user up to much larger enterprises with thousands of users. The advanced functionality will also allow you to tailor multiple different requirements seamlessly within the same organisation.
Cloud PBX Advantages
- Scalability: Having a Cloud PBX allows your business to have a phone system that will scale with you.
- Lower Cost: There are no high costs of in-house installations and regular maintenance. There is no need to purchase a physical device; the only cost involved is a monthly service fee.
- Flexibility: Your business is able to get the latest phone system features without dealing with hardware updates. You can add or remove users instantaneously and integrate existing phone hardware with the Cloud PBX.
- Extended Presence: With a cloud-based PBX system, there is little hassle for businesses that want to create and manage virtual offices, which gives them opportunities in creating a local, nationwide, or even global presence.
Cloud PBX Disadvantages
- Internet Connection: Making and receiving calls with a Cloud PBX relies on your business’s internet. If your business has a slow or unreliable internet connection, there is a chance your calls will be dropped or have low quality. However, if you have a decent connection, this should not affect you.
As technology evolves, Cloud PBX provides the flexibility and scalability businesses need while also maintaining low costs. We believe that Cloud PBX systems are the future of telecom, and we highly recommend this system to help your business. We hope this guide was helpful to you, and if you would like to learn more about Hosted switchboard (PBX) solutions, we recommend visiting the Switch Telecom website.
Glossary
VoIP technology: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analogue) phone line.
PBX: Stands for Private Branch Exchange, which is a private telephone network used within a company or organization. The users of the PBX phone system can communicate internally (within their company) and externally (with the outside world), using different communication channels like Voice over IP, ISDN or analogue.
Hosted Switchboard: You can select between a single telephone number or a range of telephone numbers to facilitate direct dialling towards multiple extensions.
Cloud based PBX: A virtual phone system that provides a business phone system through the internet.
Telecom Business Trunk: Trunks in telecommunication are links that carry many simultaneous calls; if there were no such things as trunk lines then a company would have to buy a telephone connection for every single extension that ran off its PBX. Instead, the Telecom company runs trunk lines to connect the PBX to the local Telecom exchange.
SIP Handset: Stands for Session Initiation Protocol, which is a communications protocol that manages multimedia communication such as video and voice calls.
For call holding music we made use of royalty-free music from Ben Sound.
If you would prefer Professional Voice Recording instead of holding music, Switch Telecom provides this service as well.
