What is a Hosted PBX System?
Hosted PBX, as its name suggests, is a PBX (Private Branch Exchange) being hosted by either the vendor or a third-party hosting provider. It is also commonly known as Virtual PBX. Using a hosted PBX in your organisation not only allows you to eliminate the installation cost but also reduces the operational and maintenance costs since your PBX will be hosted by the service provider.
Organisations today can go hosted with their PBX system and leave the hassles behind. With a Voice-as-a-Service (VaaS) subscription, the maintenance and upgrades are all handled by the vendor and companies are able to cater more resources to business development.
Additionally, a hosted PBX also offers useful features such as IVR (Interactive Voice Response), fax, voicemail, even conferencing.
There are three ways that a hosted PBX works:
- Via the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
- Via the Internet (hosted IP PBX via Internet Telephony or Voice Over IP, VoIP)
- A combination of both 1. & 2.
Key Advantages of a Hosted PBX System
Cost-efficient.
Organisations can manage their costs better by offloading the operational and management tasks to the vendor. Besides that, SaaS subscription nature of the hosted PBX system also allows organisations to control their expenses more effectively.
Rich Features.
Hosted PBX systems offer rich features such as IVR (Interactive Voice Response), voicemail, even conferencing compared to traditional PBX systems. Moreover, it also offers integration with other services to bring your telephony experience to a new level.
Resilient.
Hosted PBX system is more resilient and offers better business continuity compared to on-site PBX system, especially during natural disasters or other emergency events. With the entire PBX system hosted in the cloud, employees are able to use the system as long as they are connected to the internet and equipped with a device.
Scalable.
Adding, changing or removing employee numbers can be done almost instantly through a self-service portal. This enables organisations to manage their onboarding and offboarding process for on-site and remote employees more efficiently.
Transparent.
Most hosted PBX systems come with comprehensive dashboards and analytic tools that offer insightful information about user behaviors. Employers are able to optimise employee efficiency better by utilising these data.
