What you need to know about making the switch to a Hosted PBX system.

17 Nov, 2014 Jason Wagner Business Phone Services, Stuff We Like, Tech, Tips & Helpful Information, VoIP

HostedPBX21 I have been selling Hosted PBX for XMission since 2011 and have learned quite a bit about the advantages of using a Cloud-based solution like this as opposed to purchasing a premise-based phone system.

First things first… what is Hosted PBX?
Hosted PBX is a phone system that really isn’t a phone system. At least, not what we have always known as a “phone system.” Traditionally, our offices have a lot of phones that all connect to some “prehistoric box,” that nobody knows how to use, located in a dark room in the back of the office. This box is your on-premise PBX.

That prehistoric box has a bunch of wires that connect to the wall and then voila, everyone is making and receiving phone calls. This prehistoric box does do some good things, though. Let’s give credit where credit is due. You can answer a phone call, you can put the caller on hold, and you can even transfer that call to someone else’s phone. There you go. Business rolls along.

Now, let’s talk about the costs that are associated with having your prehistoric box as your phone system.

How many thousands of dollars did you spend to purchase your box?
How much did you spend to purchase the phones for your office?
How much time and money have you spent in tracking down a replacement phone that matches your system when one of those phones finally bites the dust?
How many times has the prehistoric box decided to catch a cold and take a break from working and you needed to track down a “phone expert” that could figure out how to get it back up and running? And… how expensive was that for you? Not just talking about the bill from your “phone expert,” but the potential revenue you lost while your employees could not make or take calls.

If your business phone system looks like this, you really need to upgrade.

How much money have you spent in long-distance charges from your carrier since beginning your love/hate relationship with the prehistoric box?

Ok, I am sorry to take you down that painful road. I had to in order to help illustrate the awesomeness of what you can now get with a Hosted PBX setup. Don’t worry. We have all spent time with the prehistoric box at one time or another. It’s not your fault. It was our only option for a very long time.

In comes Hosted PBX.
Say goodbye to the prehistoric box! Say goodbye to owning an aging phone system that will be become last year’s model 15 minutes after you buy it. Now, drumroll please… Hosted PBX is a corporate level phone system that runs over an Internet connection and levels the playing field for the small and medium businesses who don’t have millions of dollars burning a hole in their pocket looking for an on-premise PBX to buy.

Hosted PBX is a Voice-over IP, or VoIP solution.
How does this differ from your on-premise PBX? Well, your prehistoric box most likely used traditional analog phone lines from the phone company. With VoIP, those phone lines are now speedy little paths that travel over the Internet. No more worrying about having terrible call quality when it is raining on your phone lines! You know how the Internet works. There is a lot of room for everyone. You need another person to be able to make calls on your Hosted PBX system? Don’t worry, the Internet has plenty of room for them.

Benefits of PBX
Here are some of the most helpful benefits I have seen while talking to my customers about the advantages of switching to Hosted PBX:

No more on-premise PBX! (Obviously)
Instead of the prehistoric box, you have an always up-to-date, easily scalable phone system that XMission keeps updated in the background, which can do what you tell it to do. Call it what you want. We call it “Future Proof.”
Remember all those thousands of dollars you spent when you purchased your on-premise PBX and phones? Go ahead and hold onto that money.
Since your new Hosted PBX phone system is located on the Internet, and not in your office, you can take calls anywhere you can connect to the Internet. An example I like to use is to think of the receptionist—the friendly voice that greets your customers when they call in. The receptionist gets a call from school. Her kid is sick and she needs to go home and tend to her child. With your Hosted PBX system, she can unplug her phone and take it home. While at home, she can plug her phone into her home Internet connection and work as though she is sitting in the office. This is possible because your Hosted PBX system is now located over the Internet, not in the dark room in the back of your office.
The FEATURES! I will talk to customers about the features that are available with Hosted PBX and blow them away. It’s almost like I have to re-train their brains how to even utilize these features in their daily routine because they are used to the basic features their ancient phone system offered them. Here is a small sample of the features you get with Hosted PBX. Honestly, there are so many more!

Switching to a Hosted PBX service is an entirely new way of thinking about your phone system. When I explain it to new customers, I will usually say something like, “Think of how much money you spent purchasing your old system, your old phones, updating your old system and the hundreds of dollars you have been paying to the phone company for years and years, now let XMission handle it all, for a convenient monthly price. Your system will never become outdated again.”

Here is how I usually break it down for customers:

Each seat on our Hosted PBX includes:

Access to your corporate level phone system
An HD Voice Polycom IP phone
All your minutes (incoming, outgoing, long-distance)
Features such as voicemail to email and call forwarding
A Cloud VoIP system that you can connect your handset to from any Internet connection
A single bill from XMission, instead of multiple bills to multiple companies.

If you have questions about Hosted PBX, please leave them in the comments below. Get in touch with our sales team to get out of the prehistoric box! You won’t regret it.