What is a Hosted PBX? Full Guide
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 that companies experience are the elimination of installation, operation, and maintenance costs of their VoIP PBX. This is because their VoIP service provider hosts their PBX for them.
A hosted PBX still allows companies to utilize and take complete advantage of their phone system’s features such as voicemail, faxing, automated greetings, conferences, and so on. Companies that offer hosted PBX as a service to their customers handle the call routing or switching as well as all maintenance involved in the hosted PBX service.
How does a Hosted PBX work?
There are three ways that a hosted phone system can make and receive calls; 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.
Hosted PBX vs traditional PBX systems
Hosted PBX | Traditional PBX |
---|---|
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) | Reliant on network cabling & telephone lines |
Requires minimal ongoing maintenance | High maintenance costs |
Offers other bundled communication solutions | Very few in call features available |
Easily scalable | Needs a technician to add extensions |
Totally mobile | Tied down to your desk |
Key benefits of hosted PBX solutions
More and more business owners are opting for cloud phone systems, and with good reason. Here’s why a cloud PBX is a great solution for companies of varying sizes:
Implementing a hosted phone system
When choosing a PBX system for your business, the toss-up between an on premise PBX system or a hosted phone system can be somewhat confusing.
With a hosted solution, introducing a whole new phone system to your company isn’t as scary as it sounds. It’s quick and easy to set up, so there’s no downtime for your business or expensive installation costs. Moreover, you can be safe in the knowledge that you’ll receive the best service and support and that your business communications are in safe hands.
Implementing a hosted phone system is an easy task as you can deploy and fully configure it before going ‘live’. All users can have their extension welcome email sent prior to the go-live date so that they can become familiar with the new software features. Once everything has been set up and tested, the main business telephone numbers can be transferred from the legacy system over to the new hosted system.
How to choose the right hosted PBX provider
With a hosted PBX such as 3CX, you have two options to host in the cloud:
- Either choose to self-host yourself in your own cloud account via a reputable hosted PBX provider (such as Google, Amazon, Azure, DigitalOcean and more).
- Have 3CX host and manage your PBX for you, guaranteeing zero maintenance and using the very best cloud hosting providers.
Use Case: Woodstock Trading Company
Learn how Woodstock was able to transition from their traditional PBX to a robust modern, hosted PBX solution. 3CX offered a solution that could work with their existing infrastructure. What’s more with the Covid-19 lockdown being enforced, they were able to quickly replace their legacy phone system with something that would allow the workforce to work from home. Read the case study to see how Woodstock managed to migrate over to a new hosted 3CX solution in no time.