Why Hosted vs. On-premise VoIP/PBX

As the telephone is still one of the most primary tools of communication for business, there must be 100% reliability. Therefore, measures must be taken to insure that it is located in a fully redundant environment and is managed 24/7/365 by professionals to insure uptime & reliability.

Main Difference

The major difference between the premise based system and the hosted, is the requirement to purchase, host, and maintain the actual phone server at your premise. This option is sometimes well suited for companies with a full-time I/T staff, and appropriate facilities for hosting the server. However, it should also be considered, that good hosted providers will constantly be adding and improving on their features. This may be more difficult for a premise based server, unless your company has the programming staff to implement these features on their own. Remember, with hosted service, you only have the phones to worry about; the hosted provider handles the rest!

Save Money on Equipment and Facilities

With a hosted service, there is no equipment to purchase, other than telephones that can range from $120 - $240. This can mean thousands of dollars saved upon initial purchase of equipment. In addition; moving, upgrades and maintenance are all free with hosted providers! With a traditional phone system you can pay as much for monthly maintenance, as you do for the total service fees for a hosted provider! Another major savings is facilities, and IT expenses. With a phone system that is hosted on a company’s premise, IT staff and an appropriate facility for operations of the equipment are required. This includes power, air-conditioning and security which are all completely bullet-proof! With the hosted option, there is no need for IT staff or special facilities.

Fire Your Phone Company

With hosted VoIP service, you can get inbound and outbound calls to your phones without the need to use your telephone company or Cable provider’s services. By eliminating these service providers, your hosted phone system services can save you more money than you are currently paying with your telephone service!

Multiple Location Transfers

If your company has more than one location, you want to be able to handle each and every call that comes in, regardless of which location it may have been intended! With hosted systems, it is easy to transfer calls from one location to another, and it is a seamless process for a customer to call in, and have their calls picked up by a different location than the one they dialed! This can really save your company time, just by making 100% sure that every time a customer calls they are answered by the appropriate people!

Keeping Your Phone Running at All Times

One major advantage of a hosted phone service is the ability to host your telephone service in a carrier-grade facility that can remain up and running even in a disaster! There are power, air- conditioning and security benefits that many small businesses, and some large business, just do not have! There is normally redundancy for all critical systems, and active maintenance and monitoring performed on the service provider’s equipment, which can be expensive for most companies. If your premise based phone system goes down, you can lose calls for hours! But with a hosted service, you can have all your calls routed to another location or to your mobile phones.

Setup

This is where the hosted services can really be perfect for companies that don’t want to take the time to figure out a new system! The setup is quite simple, using an online interface. You simply type in the numbers you want to use for follow-me call routing, and setup a couple of email addresses. You then call into your phone number and record voicemail greetings. You can just click on a button in the online interface and load up greetings you have professionally recorded by the service provider, or a provider of your choosing. You may also load custom music-on-hold for your callers to hear while they wait for you to pick up the calls.

How do I choose a provider?

Most service providers offer a robust list of features, redundant facilities, and pricing that will most often beat the traditional options. There are however differences between providers that may be important to you:

• What type of a facility do they use to host their services?
• Does the provider offer VoIP telephones service, with unlimited or inexpensive inbound and outbound calling?
• Does the provider use their own proprietary software, or are they reselling another platform? This can be important when you need flexibility in features, integration, and other customized services.
• Do they offer excellent customer service, available when you need them?
• Does the provider keep your business by holding your phone number hostage, and making it difficult to get it back if you cancel service, or do they prefer to earn your continued business by providing excellent service?