Today, many businesses are moving to an all-cloud based phone system. The cloud-based system is also sometimes called Hosted PBX or Virtual PBX. Let’s learn the benefit of cloud PBX vs on premise PBX.
Benefits of using the cloud for your business’ phone system include:
- Operating expenses are reduced because you do not need to purchase traditional hardware like phones and fax machines. When you use a cloud based phone system there is no equipment needed onsite except for your computer or mobile device. This means that your equipment costs will be less than the traditional phone systems offered by almost every telephone service provider in America today (e.g. Time Warner Telephone, Comcast Xfinity Voice, etc.)
- Your voicemail is backed up automatically in case anything happens to the system. If the cloud based phone system you are using should fail for any reason, your voicemail will still be stored in a secure location for later access.
- You can send faxes directly from your computer or mobile device by simply attaching the document to an email and sending it to a special email address determined by your service provider.
- The phone system is configurable so that almost every aspect of the way it works can be customized to suit your specific business’ needs.
- When you are placing calls, you are able to see who is available in your list of contacts before making the call, this saves time when trying to contact someone. There’s no need to memorize phone extensions because they are not used.
- Your phone system is mobile because you can make and receive calls from anywhere, opposed to the traditional telephone service provided by a large telecommunication company. The phone number assigned to your business remains unchanged regardless of where you are located.
- Cloud-based phone systems offer many other benefits but these are some of the main ones. Get more information on cloud PBX vs. premise PBX by visiting various websites that provide this type of information. You will find that there are many reasons for moving to a completely cloud-based solution for your phone system needs.
How does using the cloud for your business’ phone system differs from a traditional on-premise solution?
The first thing to understand is that the cloud only provides the user with an internet connection. All of the hardware and software used by a company for their phone system resides on-premise – at their business – not in a data center or other location. Traditional PBX systems connect phones and computers directly to one another over a wired Ethernet network and VoIP (Voice over IP) uses existing internet connections via broadband cable, DSL, fiber optic, T1/T3 lines.
With traditional PBX you must configure each extension manually. With cloud PBX you can easily create groups of extensions that ring at once making it much easier to call everyone in your office at once without having to dial into multiple extensions. With traditional PBX often there will be one main point of failure which causes the entire system to fail. With cloud PBX you gain an extra layer of redundancy that ensures that you can reach everyone at once and won’t lose connection in case something goes wrong with your equipment or internet service provider (ISP).
Traditional on-premise telephone systems require a lot of maintenance and upkeep to ensure they are working properly and offer valuable features such as automated attendant, call forwarding, dynamic messaging, voicemail to email transcription, dial by name directories, call logs etc. While these features are not directly related to the usage of the phone system it is still important for them to operate smoothly. Any problems with the PBX software will result in delays calling people who have phone extensions because the software will be down and nobody can make or receive calls.
Features like these take time and money to implement and maintain, making them less accessible and often only offered by larger PBX companies who can afford to offer such services. If you already have a traditional PBX there is no reason to get rid of it unless it’s old, out of date, has outlived its usefulness or simply doesn’t suit your company any longer. There are still plenty of businesses that rely on older phone systems but as we’ve seen from the top seven benefits listed above – cloud-based solutions offer so much more.
Pricing for traditional telephone systems is almost always paid up front with heavy license fees which may not necessarily include support for updates and technological support. In contrast, cloud PBX providers lease the phones and other equipment from you as opposed to leasing them from a third party software developer. This way if there is a problem with any of your hardware or software it’s much easier for the provider to rectify the situation since they have first hand access to all of their products.
Now that we know the benefit of cloud PBX vs on premise PBX, cloud-based phone systems are clearly a better choice over traditional PBX but that doesn’t mean that every business should switch right away. If you already have a stable system setup and working effectively, don’t try to make changes unless absolutely necessary – this will cause more problems than it will solve. If you still use desk phones without IP connectivity then there really isn’t much reason why you shouldn’t consider switching over to cloud PBX.
