The death of the traditional PBX
Posted by Cloud Net on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 @ 10:42 AM
Until recently the Private Branch Exchange (PBX) has been at the
cornerstone or the business phone systems. However, technological developments have meant that in-house, hardware-based PBX solutions have fallen out of favour. Organisations need to understand why the PBX is now not the popular solution to buy and what the best alternative is if they are to remain at the front of the pack.
The popularity of traditional PBX has fallen because it no longer meets the needs of' smaller businesses, especially those hit by the recession. Most companies are finding a PBX unnecessarily expensive especially as it can't be combined with an existing broadband connection. As well as paying for both of these connections, the business then either has to lease the PBX hardware itself, or try and buy a PBX outright. Also, PBX systems are not easy for the end user to configure. If another phone needs to be added, or if users need to he swapped around, it is a difficult and time consuming task. This difficulty extends to technical problems as well, because they require an engineer to be called out to the site - which can sometimes take days - leaving the business without its phone line.
The main thing that SME's want out of any PBX alternative is a reduction in cost. With Cloud Net there is no hardware involved, other than the handsets themselves and these are free. The actual PBX is hosted by Cloud Net and all you needs to do is connect your handset to the network. As there is no hardware lease costs arc eliminated you only have to pay for the monthly costs of the service itself.
This also means that hosted PBX only requires a broadband connection, letting businesses avoid the cost of paying for phone and broadband lines. The fact that the PBX is hosted in 'the cloud' also makes it simple for end users to configure their own PBX via a graphical user interface (GUI) that runs inside a traditional internet browser. Adding new users, changing numbers or creating groups, only takes the click of button, rather than the process of swapping cables over in a physical PBX box.
Another reason why customers should buy Cloud Net Connect is because it is easier to set up than standard PBX. Everything can be configured in the systems handling the hosted PBX, rather thin having to configure PBX hardware and then send it to the customer to he set up by an engineer. This also means that any problems can be solved by Cloud Net, and it doesn't require an engineer to be called out to the site, reducing your downtime.
The fast pace of technological change in the telecommunications industry means that customers need to keep up to date. Traditional PBX's were instantly out of date. However with the Cloud Net Connect hosted solution you are always at the forefront of technology. No more scrapping of hardware.
The right technology at the right moment can provide customers with many opportunities. The old fashioned PBX is dead.
Written by David Hill, Chairman, Cloud Net.