In a battle between hosted PBX and traditional, on-premise PBX, which business phone system would come out victorious? There are several factors that business owners should consider before coming to that conclusion.

Cost – Hosted VoIP allows you to pay a flat subscription rate that is all-encompassing. It covers equipment, IT support and any maintenance you may need for your business phone system’s upkeep. You will never run into any surprises when it comes to pricing. With an on-premise PBX, business owners won’t have to deal with recurring payments, but they do need to take into account a higher set-up cost, hardware expenses and ongoing maintenance and operational fees.   

Mobility – With hosted PBX, you can access your business phone system and enjoy all the features it has to offer from any phone, anywhere, as long as you are connected to the Internet. This is an invaluable asset for smaller businesses where telecommuting is the norm. A hardware-based PBX, on the other hand, can be limiting since employees must use phones that are wired directly to the PBX inside an office environment.

Maintenance – If you don’t want to worry about having to hire an in-house IT team with the right skills, hosted PBX is the option for you. Support is available 24/7, eliminating the risk or responsibility of keeping your phone system up and running. An on-site VoIP system might be a better solution for larger enterprises since they have the IT capacity to support the installation and maintenance.

There are benefits and drawbacks with each approach, but ultimately, it comes down to your corporate priorities and your own personal preference. Hosted VoIP is an ideal choice for small and mid-sized business owners seeking cost-efficiency, mobility and round-the-clock support.

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For small businesses, a VoIP phone system gives employees the ability to work productively from home. And according to a recent study from Stanford University, telecommuters are happier, more productive and take less time off.

A Chinese travel agency called CTrip tested the theory by recruiting 500 employees and asking half to work from home, while the rest reported to the office. In addition to a 13 percent performance increase, those working from home took fewer breaks and sick days, answered more calls per minute and reported improved work satisfaction.

So how do you make working from home a seamless process? A VoIP phone system allows telecommuters to harness all the capabilities of a corporate phone system from the comfort of their homes or even while on the road. You can dial from your office’s phone line, have calls transferred, access your voicemail, and conference call just as if it were a normal day in the office.  

A hosted phone service product like Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere is an ideal tool for small businesses with a large number of telecommuters. This technology permits remote or mobile workers to use their personal smartphones and computers as VoIP handsets with full business phone system functionality. You can use any standard SIP softphone to make or receive high-quality calls from any location, just as long as you have access to WiFi. It’s the perfect solution for cutting down on roaming costs during long distance business trips.

Working away from the office doesn’t have to mean feeling disconnected from your team members or business clients. With a VoIP phone system, you can stay linked to your network without missing a beat – even if you’re thousands of miles away.

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Most will agree that communication is the foundation of every successful relationship. If that’s the case, choosing the right business phone system is absolutely essential. But with so many different options on the market, selecting the one that best fits your business needs is easier said than done. For small business owners looking to foster mutually beneficial relationships between their customers, partners and employees, a hosted VoIP system provides the ideal combination of features, reliability and price.

Here are three critical factors to consider before switching to hosted VoIP:

Price point – Every small business is constantly looking to reduce operating expenses and improve its bottom line. But it’s important to find a service that offers value without sacrificing the features that a truly great business phone system should have. In addition to being much more affordable than setting up a traditional, on-site business phone system, a hosted VoIP system also minimizes the hassle of extensive maintenance costs. Plus, you have the freedom to upgrade your phone system whenever you choose without having to purchase more hardware or pay additional installation charges.

Telecommuting perks – Telecommuting is a new reality in today’s modern “workplace.” When business professionals are constantly on-the-go, they need flexible communications options in order to be productive. Hosted phone service products like Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere allow savvy entrepreneurs to transport their business phone systems and work extensions anywhere that is reachable by 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi networks through smartphones, laptops or tablets.

Reliability – In the end, the most important features of a phone system are call quality and system reliability. Although traditional PSTN phone networks have provided excellent quality, VoIP technology has come a long way since it was first introduced. Today’s VoIP service providers are able to deliver voice quality and unparalleled service for the fraction of the cost of hiring specialized IT staff. With the right choice of hosted PBX provider, the stress of dropped calls or lengthy downtime is virtually eliminated.

Though there are a multitude of options when choosing your business phone system, it is important to know exactly what works for your small business. Smart entrepreneurs, who look for the most cost-efficient, flexible service that offers excellent quality on a consistent level, will find those features and lots more in a hosted PBX VoIP solution. Your business has the potential to cultivate lasting relationships – all you need is the right communication tool.

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When deciding on critical office infrastructure, from office layout to hardware, there is a variety of parts to consider. However, small businesses that rely on frequent communication with customers usually make their phone system a priority to ensure that they consistently improve their customers’ experience. By focusing on customer service, these businesses see increased returns and higher customer and employee satisfaction. Often, this can be achieved by streamlining processes through the use of new technology like a hosted IP-PBX phone system.

Today’s technology allows the small business owner to move away from complicated, traditional PSTN phone systems to faster and more versatile PBX solutions. Besides being an easier-to-use service, the hosted PBX offers several other invaluable features.

- Lower entry points. High-end phone systems used to be the domain of big businesses. By outsourcing the infrastructure, a hosted PBX solution lowers the initial costs of setting up a business-grade phone system. This provides even the smallest business with world-class phone services that have previously been limited to FORTUNE 500 companies.

- Scalability. Traditional phone systems are generally bulky, cumbersome and inflexible. By switching to IP-PBX phone systems, growing small businesses can easily add more phone lines as they hire more employees. Some products, like Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere, will reduce the costs of expansion even further, providing free phones to their long-term users.

- Round-the-clock support. By using hosted services, small businesses outsource specialty IT departments to an outside firm. This allows entrepreneurs to lower their IT expenses and cut back on the operational costs of running their businesses. Hosted PBX solutions are also consistently monitored and serviced by experienced professionals who specialize in IP-PBX phone systems, allowing small business owners to concentrate on what they do best – providing excellent service to their customers.

A top priority for any small business is to shrink costs while providing better service to their customers. By reducing entry and service costs, while providing a low-cost way to scale service as the business grows, hosted PBX phone solutions even out the network services playing field and allow small businesses a chance to succeed alongside large enterprises. They offer a smart choice for any business looking to improve its customer service without breaking the bank.

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Balmy weather can make even the most dedicated employees and small business owners feel trapped in their workplace, while warm, beautiful days of summer wait just outside. Blue skies and sunshine can lead to distracted workers who find excuses to take lots of time off. Flexible workplaces that allow telecommuting often see higher returns on employee productivity and satisfaction by allowing their workers to maintain their connection to the office while enjoying everything that summer has to offer. One way to support telecommuting is to use hosted VoIP services to maintain network connectivity to the main office while working from a fixed remote location or while on the move.

By shifting to a hosted VoIP solution, businesses are able to provide an extra perk for employees who wish to work from home office locations or any other location that supports a broadband connection, instead of a traditional workplace. Businesses that offer telecommuting as an option can attract top talent to help them grow and expand.

Moving away from a traditional PSTN network also allows small businesses to easily and inexpensively scale their phone services as their size increases and new lines must be added to accommodate extra employees. An on-site PSTN infrastructure is notoriously expensive to maintain and expand. By replacing it with a hosted solution, both the upfront infrastructure costs and ongoing IT costs are marginalized and sometimes eliminated altogether. Hosted VoIP providers take on the expenses of scaling their customers’ phone networks since the databanks and supporting infrastructure are located at their facilities rather than by the end user.

Modern VoIP providers are able to provide telecommuting options through a range of services, most notably softphone applications, which allow smartphones or computers to function as natural VoIP extensions of business phone systems. Through the use of softphones, small businesses are able to provide telecommuting options to employees who wish to take advantage of working from home, as well as providing flexibility and across-the-board savings to their office phone networks. If these features are attractive to your small business, consider a hosted VoIP solution today.

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When small business owners wish to cut expenses, they prefer to avoid anything that would interrupt their business operations or devote their precious time to learn how to manage another communications system. Instead, they’d rather have a solution that will reduce costs, yet allow them to focus on their business operations and their customers. When it comes to small business phone systems, hosted services, including hosted VoIP, provide easy-to-use, reliable communications that include top-of-the-line features for the fraction of the price they pay to use old, legacy PSTN networks.

Today’s modern small business uses a variety of technology and requires substantial IT support. By shifting to hosted phone service providers, small businesses can limit the network equipment managed at their on-site location and allow their overall IT budgets to shrink. Hosted VoIP networks eliminate the need for on-site phone servers and shift the burden of maintenance onto their service provider rather than the end user. Entrepreneurs can then concern themselves with running their small business, secure in the knowledge that professionals from their service provider are ensuring that their communications remain secure and reliable.

Another benefit of hosted services is the safety afforded to phone networks as part of business continuity and disaster recovery plans. By having phone networks hosted in a different location, businesses that are affected by disaster situations are able to maintain free and open lines of communication to ensure that their customers, partners and agents remain connected and available. This diminishes downtime and allows businesses to quickly bounce back from otherwise crippling crisis situations.

Hosted services also provide greater mobility than legacy systems. Softphone apps available from many of today’s hosted VoIP providers allow any smartphone or laptop to be turned into a business phone extension. These apps provide mobility for businesses that require their employees to work off-site and allow the flexibility that is desired by many of today’s top talent. Modern softphones make it possible for entrepreneurs to have their business extension available anywhere that is reachable by Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G networks.

When it comes to phone services, hosted VoIP networks provide small businesses with the versatility, features and price-points that traditional PSTN providers cannot offer. They offer an intelligent alternative for comprehensive disaster recovery plans and a flexible option for employees working from home or on business trips. These features, coupled with the hosted VoIP system’s ease-of-use, make them the right decision for small business owners everywhere.

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