Things to Consider Before You Switch to Hosted PBX

Are you one of the businesses that is considering a move to a hosted PBX phone system, but are not sure if it is a smart decision? You know that you are not happy with your current outdated system and you see competitors using hosted PBX systems to add a number of really cool benefits that help them be more efficient and effective. But with every change, there are plusses and minuses to consider. So you would like to know: Is it a smart move to get a hosted PBX phone system now? Here are some important things to consider:

The Size of Your Company:

Generally speaking, Hosted PBX phone systems provide the most advantages for small businesses with 12 employees or less. If your employees are spread over several locations, this will put less strain on the overall system and more employees can be accommodated.

Bandwidth Costs: In terms of cost of the phones and flexibility, hosted PBX cannot be beat, but you need to also consider additional bandwidth costs that will become costly as you begin to add more people on the system. This will cause a spike in your bandwidth costs and you need to calculate how much this will add to your bills every month.

Call Quality: Another consideration is call quality. Today most company’s employees are on the internet all the time. There is information going in both directions and this is taxing on the connection. Calls through a hosted PBX phone system are routed through the Internet and as with all such connections are affected by unknowns in the cloud.  These events can lead to issues like latency that affect call quality or worse events that in-effect cause outages due to loss of signal or call routing.  Although generally short lived in duration, these issues can and do occur. You obviously need to have a consistent amount of bandwidth in order to get great and consistent call quality. Depending on the Internet speed available to your business this may be a problem.

The Cost of Set-up:

Router and Lines: When you decide to purchase a hosted PBX system, technicians will visit your office to test your connections to ensure you have enough power and data speed to support the system. If you do not, you’ll have to first upgrade your power and high-speed internet connection. Once this is done, you will have to purchase and have installed routers and equipment in order to make the system function properly. Therefore you will incur set-up costs that depending on the size of your company can run into the thousands.

Handsets: Hosted PBX requires that you purchase IP phones for the system. These phones vary in price from a low end feature phone costing about $100.00 to higher-end full featured phones costing up to $300.00 each. Each phone has a built in Ethernet port where the PC can then be plugged in.  It is better though to have each phone connected to its own switch or router port for more throughput and better consistency and you will be able to separate voice and data.

As with any purchase for your business you need to do your homework and research the different types of packages that hosted PBX providers offer. There are some packages that take into account multiple business locations, others that take into account fast growth, and some that have plans to compensate for areas that will likely experience Internet outages. Be clear about the specific needs of your business so you can decide which package serves your company best.

Hosted PBX provider like Cloud Telecom provides free handsets on the monthly packages above $20 AUD . Visit our website https://www.cloudtelecom.com.au to check out our competitive hosted pbx pricing or call 1800 358 339 for more information.