What is a Hosted PBX?
A Hosted PBX is a private branch exchange (PBX) delivered as a hosted service. It’s also known as a Virtual PBX and the advantages companies that use it experience are the elimination of installation, operation and maintenance costs of their VoIP PBX as their VoIP service provider hosts their PBX for them.
A Hosted PBX still allows companies to utilise and take complete advantage of their phone system’s feature set such as voicemail, faxing, automated greetings, conferences and so on.
Companies that offer Hosted PBX’s as a service to their customers handle the call routing or switching as well as all maintenance involved in the hosted PBX service.
There are three ways that a hosted PBX works; either over the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) over the Internet (hosted IP PBX via Internet Telephony or Voice Over IP, VoIP) or with a combination of the two.
Key benefits of a Hosted PBX Solution
- Initial and Ongoing cost savings – there’s no need for a large investment before installing your phone system and also the maintenance cost of your phone system is much lower as you don’t need to hire someone inhouse to operate and maintain your PBX.
- Eliminate office boundaries – employees can work from anywhere with a virtual office phone system. Ideal for home-workers and salespeople who are constantly on the move.
- Boost of corporate image – by using a hosted phone system small businesses can still give the impression of being a large organization with a professional phone system.
- Scalability – with a virtual phone system businesses can add or remove lines and extensions as they grow
- Easy to use – since there’s no end-user management involved with a virtual PBX, it’s easier to use than a traditional phone system.
Hosted PBX phone systems have many benefits for businesses of all sizes, especially for SMBs. So, if you’re tired of dealing with an unwieldy proprietary phone system that consumes much of your IT resources just to maintain then perhaps it’s time to move your phone system to the cloud.
Take a look at these top five benefits of a hosted PBX phone system:
Cost efficiency
Hosted PBX poses fewer expenses in the form of repairs and downtime often imposed by legacy systems’ in-house maintenance. Rather, hosted PBXs are managed by a third-party vendor. In addition, hosted telephony requires little to no complex infrastructure to purchase or set up as it uses an Internet connection to deliver your telecommunications.
Scale
A hosted PBX enables your communication requirements to grow seamlessly with your business.  In fact, the hosted solution enables businesses to add phone lines, extensions and even connect to mobile devices without facing the limitations imposed by “old style” phone systems’ hardware.
Outsourced maintenance
The up-keep of a hosted PBX system is managed by the phone system provider in an off-site location, so you don’t have to dedicate in-house staff, time and money to keeping an on-premises system up and running. Your company will experience more uptime because the hosted PBX system doesn’t have to be taken offline for maintenance, updating, or repairs.
Reliability
A hosted PBX system can be counted on to connect every call without lagging response times, delays or lapses in call quality. You can count on the clear reception of each call, as Internet-based telephony is touted for its improved quality over that of traditional PSTN connection.
Disaster recovery
Often, the first thing that “goes down” in the case of an unforeseen event such as a storm, fire or power outage is your telephone’s connection—that is, if you’re still using a legacy system. This disruption can bring productivity to a screeching halt, which affects your bottom line and external communications—with important vendors and clients, for instance.  A hosted PBX can solve this problem as your infrastructure is protected in a hosted environment. As such, your flow of communications can continue even in an emergency.
For more information call 800-354-4160 today!