What is Virtual PBX?
Having a Virtual PBX system means that the guts of your business telecomunications systems are hosted remotely. It’s your phone system in the cloud.
With a Virtual PBX, the phone system lives in your data center, not in your office. That means that you don’t have to take care of it, upgrade it, and keep it running. You just pay for the phones, the router, and the robust features you want on a per user basis. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of virtual PBX and see if it’s right for your business.
This can be a great, no-hassle option for a lot of small companies that don’t want the hassle or up-front expense of an installed PBX system in your office.
What are the Benefits of Virtual PBX?
There are 5 primary benefits of Virtual PBX:
1. Low cost of entry
There is no major investment in a premise-based PBX system. Your upfront costs usually amount to just your phones and maybe an updated router.
2. Fast and Flexible Scaling
If you are a startup today, there is seldom a chance to accurately gauge your growth potential. With a Virtual PBX, you can scale up or down almost as fast as you can buy phones.
3. No Maintenance Required
Think of the savings you can experience by not having to install, fix, or upgrade your phone system. No more distractions.
4. Remote Workplaces and Workers
Imagine your workers working where the work is. Or where they want to work. Or where they are most effective. That all can be done with your Virtual PBX.
5. Built-in Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity
Regardless of what happens to your business location, the off-premise nature of the Virtual PBX means that your business can function anywhere it can set up a phone and Internet access.
What’s the Downside of Virtual PBX?
No system is perfect. There’s always trade-offs. Here are three you should think about:
1. Network Reliability
With Virtual PBX, if your primary internet connection goes down, so do your phones. By its very nature, Virtual PBX is reliant upon your Internet connection. This can be a rude awkening if you’re used to the “always up” reliability of traditional, on-premise PBX systems.
These days, Internet connections are getting more and more reliable but they still don’t provide that 99.999% reliability of the traditional telephone systems you grew up with.
You can however combat the reliability issue with features such as auto-routing to cell phones. Talk to your Virtual pbx provider for more details.
2. Long Term Total Cost of Ownership
With Virtual PBX, you only pay for what you use. This is great. But if you’re a growing company, and you plan on doubling or tripling the number of phone users over the next 2-3 years, you may need to stop and think about if Virtual PBX still makes sense.
Premise-based PBX, while representing a big upfront cost, offers serious economies of scale as you grow. With a premise-based PBX system, it costs much less on a per phone basis when you start getting over 60-70 phones. With Virtual PBX, there’s no scalability.
3. Custom Application Integration
Many times knowing who’s calling you and routing that call to the right sales person can be a a great way to keep your customers happy. This is possible if you integrate your CRM and phone systems. But many Virtual PBX companies may not offer this. Ask your Virtual PBX provider if they integrate with CRM systems.
