Those of you that have been reading this series of Cloud-related tutorials for the layperson must be wondering what we are going to come up with next. Well wonder no longer, now that you understand the benefits of moving into the Cloud for everyday processing and backup of your IT requirements, we thought it would be the right time to introduce CloudPBX services. Let’s start with a quick overview of what a PBX does and typical costs associated with its operation.

PBXs are used to manage the flow of telephone calls in and out, for every conceivable size of business, providing a wide range of calling features we have come to expect. Historically these systems required a large capital outlay on the order of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, on top of which there would be expensive annual maintenance fees, and let’s not forget the ongoing cost of the phone lines themselves required to connect the PBX to the public telephone network. The PBX makes it possible to share a limited number of phone lines with a large number of employees; conduct conference calling; and support abbreviated private dialling, advanced voicemail capabilities and a host of other features making the telephone an invaluable tool in the daily routine of conducting just about any business today. Large organisations could easily spend a small fortune on complete systems, and smaller companies without the resources for such large capital projects would typically opt for smaller, less feature rich systems that met their basic needs but at the sacrifice of mediocre performance.

Until recently, businesses had little choice but to pay for these expensive phone systems as well as incur the expensive operational ongoing costs, but that is now changing with the advent of new virtual PBXs that can be accessed via the Cloud.

Cloud PBX Services, can provide companies of all sizes with a high-end, feature rich PBX service at a fraction of the traditional cost, with no upfront capital expenditure. Cloud PBX is essentially a “one size fits all”, available to companies with as few as one or two users or with hundreds of employees, with a choice of features and functionality of a million dollar phone system previously found only in large enterprise organisations.

Most Cloud PBX services work on a per user model. For one low monthly fee per user, the customer may receive a variety of features and benefits, such as a multi-line desk phone, a direct dial phone number, unlimited local telephone calls, as well as access to an enterprise grade PBX platform, offering such features as call transfer, call hold, conference calling, voicemail, and unified messaging which will send your voicemail messages to your e-mail inbox. Hunt groups, advanced call routing, and detailed billing logs are all features you should look for when selecting a service provider.

Included in the monthly fee should be ongoing maintenance, so you should never pay for a maintenance contract on your PBX again. Further, since the PBX itself is typically located and fully maintained at the premise of the service provider, you never have to pay for a technical consultant to come and fix your phone system again. Assuming you get a full featured package with unlimited local calling included in the monthly price, coupled with a flat rate long distance calling plan, your entire telecoms cost will be included in a fixed monthly rate. And the icing on the cake is you should have access to a nice user-friendly web interface that allows you to manage your phones simply and easily.

To ensure your complete satisfaction, you should look for a service provider that can offer a “one size fits all’ solution, including a variety of ways to connect to the Cloud PBX service. For the highest quality of service, you will want to provision a dedicated high-speed Ethernet connection from the Cloud PBX platform directly to your office. For home office workers and road warriors you will likely be well served just with a high quality internet connection, which means the system can easily be accessed from anywhere in the world. Remote users should have the option of using a software-based soft phone instead of the traditional Desktop phone for ease-of-use when away from the office. So if your company currently has an old PBX that you’re thinking about replacing, or if it’s that time of year again when you have to pay your annual maintenance fee on your PBX, or if you are a new business starting out and you want to have a professional enterprise grade phone system without the professional enterprise grade cost, invest a little time to research how a Cloud PBX service can save your company money and improve your performance.

This week’s article is submitted by Rick O’Donnell, Channel Management at LinkBermuda, who can be contacted at 400-4040.