Is the premise phone system dead?

Once upon a time businesses had the only one choice for a phone system.  Direct to the Telco (AT&T).  Let’s look at the changes over the years of the Private Base Exchange (PBX).

Old Fashioned PBX: Then AT&T started producing the PBX that put some of the telco’s equipment in the local business. A traditional PBX phone system is a type of telephone system that connects an office to the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). The traditional phone system is used for analog-based telephone networks. Traditional PBX systems are used in large business environments with multiple lines, and they require a dedicated phone line for each extension.  These were connected via T1 technology back to the AT&T office.

Digital PBX: A digital PBX phone system is a type of telephone system that connects an office to the PSTN using VoIP technology. Digital PBX systems are telephony systems that use IP-based protocols rather than analog signals to route calls. And these accounts are typically managed by software applications running on dedicated servers or virtual machines. These types of PBX were preferred by small businesses because they were less expensive than traditional PBX systems and easier to manage.

Onsite IP based PBX: In this type of PBX phone system, the hardware is installed on-premises and connected to an network that is capable of handling IP based traffic. The hardware typically includes a router, switch, and fax/modem. The IP PBX can be used for both traditional analog phones as well as digital phones. This was especially useful when digital phones were extremely expensive.

Virtual Cloud Based Systems: A cloud-based PBX phone system has all the same features as an on-site model, but it runs from a remote location instead of being installed at your business site which means it works on a remote server. The advantage to this setup is that maintenance costs are much lower since there is no equipment to maintain or replace; you simply pay for the service when it’s time to renew your contract with the vendor.

Now the future is moving from the PBX to UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) and there are reasons why businesses want to move in that direction:

• Use communications to innovate and differentiate themselves in the marketplace are often better suited for UCaaS solutions, which are continually updated
• Prefer the operating expense model of monthly subscription pricing
• Prefer constant, incremental feature updates
• Prefer to have security and compliance managed by the cloud provider
• Have seasonal increases in the number of users they support. Enterprises can adjust licenses based on the number of users instead of purchasing licenses for the peak user count and then having them unused during non-peak periods.

While the on premise PBX is still around the single biggest issue for not moving to UCaaS solution is a lack of adequate internet bandwidth, especially in remote areas, however that is becoming less and less of an issue today.

If you want to find out if a cloud based solution is right for your company (time to ditch the PBX?) then simply reach out to any of our team to enhance your business needs!

Reach out to steam@fusion-it.net or give us a call at Fusion IT at 616-828-5360!