If your business is still using a traditional Private Branch Exchange (PBX) telephone system, it is likely to have been in place for longer than the most veteran employee has been at your company. Although these systems worked well in the past, technology is ever evolving. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, also known as hosted phones are becoming increasingly welcomed by businesses.

It’s no surprise why. VoIP is an alternative way of making phone calls that can be very cheap. The physical phone is not always present or needed anymore, as you can communicate through a number of other mediums.

Here are some of the main benefits of switching from PBX to Hosted Phones (VoIP):

1. Decrease Upfront and Ongoing Costs

The main advantage of VoIP is cost, both for the initial investment and monthly charges. One of the biggest expenses associated with business phone systems is the hardware required to set up the private exchange. Small and medium-sized businesses especially benefit from reducing the initial expenditure associated with a business phone system by using VoIP.

2. Easy Scaling

When you want to expand a traditional phone system by 10 times your current capacity, you have a lot of implementation to get through. What’s worse, if your phone needs less capacity after implementation, you are stuck paying for the associated overhead anyway. With a VoIP cloud-based system, you can rapidly add or reduce capacity as needed. This provides lots of businesses with flexibility while reducing costs.

3. Added Features

VoIP provides additional features that are difficult or impossible to get on a traditional phone system. Two useful VoIP features are video calling and conferencing. Another advantage is unified messaging, which makes it easy to forward extensions to multiple devices.

4. Creating Flexibility for Employees

VoIP-based systems help travelling employees to stay connected with the rest of the organisation more easily. Handsets can be plugged in anywhere and they are simple to use and understand. Voicemails can be emailed making communication easy.

5. Utilising Existing Infrastructure

VoIP works with your existing network infrastructure, so you don’t have to worry about details like finding a space to put additional hardware or going through a lengthy implementation phase. VoIP implementation is rapid, especially compared to PBX, so you can take advantage of a more flexible phone system quickly.

If you would like any more information or advice, please get in contact with one of our experienced team members today.