The Hosted PBX Myth

Hosted PBX systems often seem like a great deal for many businesses to get a phone system up and running quickly, easily, and cheaply. However, there are a number of problems with hosted solutions that you should be aware of. Fonality offers a best-of-both-worlds solution Hybrid-Hosted PBX that addresses all of them.

What is Hosted PBX?

Hosted PBX (or IP Centrex) is a new approach to the PBX market that allows businesses to outsource their IP PBX to a service provider. Hosted PBX provides a number of advantages over the legacy PBX switch:

• Your 4 digit extension follows you wherever you travel
• You save on long distance with low-cost VoIP
• It’s telecommuter and mobile worker friendly

However, there are a number of issues with using a hosted PBX service. Below, we discuss the three most evident problems and then describe our comprehensive solution.

Problem #1: Hosted PBX = Dropped Calls

Using a hosted PBX means that all of your telephone calls travel over the public internet — the same public internet that tends to slow during peak traffic hours. These slowdowns are barely noticed when you browse or download email, but these momentary lapses cause VoIP calls to sound very poor, or get dropped. Even if the public internet stays fast (or you use a private connection), you are still placing all your faith in the quality of your hosted PBX provider's network.

Problem #2: Hosted PBX = Expensive

Let's talk cost. Hosted PBX providers will try to lure you in by claiming that their solution will save you money. At first glance it may seem that way. But does it really? Most hosted pbx providers charge an average of $50 per employee per month. Since the average business keeps its phone system for about five years, we can easily compute what a hosted PBX will really cost you:

20-employee scenario: $50/mo. x 20 employees x 5 years = $60,000!

Problem #3: Hosted PBX = Less Features

When you use a hosted PBX service your business shares a remote server with hundreds, and often thousands, of other businesses. because the problem is that many high-end PBX features are computationally expensive thus requiring many dedicated server resources. If you dig deeply into the feature-set, you notice that most hosted providers lack a number of important PBX features such as automatic call distribution, call recording, conference bridges, call barging, presence management, unified messaging, and powerful reporting, just to name a few.

Answer: The The Hybrid-Hosted IP PBX is the Best of Both Worlds

Don’t panic! Fonality has a hybrid-hosted IP-PBX solution that provides you the reliability and feature set of an on-premise PBX along with the flexibility and long distance savings of a hosted PBX. Fonality PBXtra allows you to:

• Seamlessly blend VoIP and PSTN for low-cost, reliable communications
• Benefit from patent-pending telecommuter technology
• Talk between branch offices without paying long distance
• Give your telecommuters the ability to communicate with headquarters for free
• Take your phone anywhere and your 4-digit extension will follow
• Use a soft-phone while at home or on the road
• Build a distributed call center and save on rent
• And much more

The best news is the price. For $995, Fonality provides you with a PBXtra and our powerful PBXtra software. Compare that to the $60,000 price tag we quoted above and you will find yourself jumping off of the hosted bandwagon!

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