The Pros and Cons of Hosted Telephone Systems
Hosted telephone systems are an option for both traditional Private Branch Exchange (PBX) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems. With a hosted telephone system, all of the equipment is housed by the service provider who also takes care of the telephone system support and maintenance. In this article, we consider the pros and cons of a hosted telephone system to help you make an informed decision.
The advantages of a hosted telephone system
With a hosted system, you will not need to purchase any physical equipment, other than the handsets you need. All of the necessary equipment will be housed by the service provider and supported by their in-house engineers. This makes a hosted system a great choice for smaller businesses because they tend to have limited space and less capital to invest in expensive equipment. A hosted telephone system can free your business from traditional equipment, lines and annual support contracts.
With a hosted telephone system, you will usually pay a fixed monthly cost. Because the telephone support and maintenance packages are included in this cost, it makes budget planning straightforward. Financial predictability is always a plus when it comes to business. Without ongoing support and maintenance, financial outlay can be unpredictable with periods of no cost followed by periods of high cost. Inclusive maintenance is a real benefit of hosted telephony because it saves having to pay for a separate maintenance contract. In addition, losses from power outages will be minimised because your provider will have back-up power supplies.
A hosted system offers advanced features and functionalities at no additional cost. Such features include call transfer, caller ID, call queuing, voicemail, call recording, auto attendant, fax facilities, conference calls and many more. Advanced features can really help to streamline your operations, increasing productivity and efficiency. These features are only usually available with high-end traditional telephone systems, or for an additional cost, but you can benefit for them for free with a hosted system. You will also benefit from hardware and software upgrades at no additional cost. This could save you a fortune over the long-term.
A hosted system can offer increased flexibility at no additional charge. With call routing, staff can work from anywhere or still take calls when they are away from their desks. Extensions can be run through multiple sites, with calls made to each other free of charge. Because you will have minimal equipment on-site, relocating to new premises will be easy and hassle-free. For business continuity, you will be able to move anywhere and still keep your existing numbers.
The disadvantages of a hosted telephone system
Once you sign an agreement with a service provider, you could be locked in for the contract period. Some providers do offer short term rolling monthly contracts, but it is usually much cheaper to opt for a fixed term contract. Whilst monthly costing can be beneficial, particularly in the short-term due to up-front savings, the total cost of ownership is higher because you never acquire full possession of the system. However, this is arguably offset by the lack of capital outlay, ongoing support and maintenance and free software and hardware upgrades. Nevertheless, it is a factor worth considering.
A hosted VoIP telephone system will require internet access to operate. This means that you could experience disruption to your service as a result of downtime, and this could be beyond the control of your service provider. If your business depends on IP telephony, it’s worth considering an internet service agreement that offers guaranteed service levels, such as a leased line. Perhaps, consider opting for a hosted telephone system provider that can guarantee a minimum service as part of their Service Level Agreement. In addition, you can sometimes suffer from poor call quality with a hosted telephone system, such as signal interference and time lag when transferring to mobile devices. This will depend on factors such as cabling infrastructure and network coverage, so these should be considered before taking out a hosted system contract.
Finally, if you exceed your monthly agreed usage, you can still incur additional costs as you would with a traditional telephone system. Make sure that your monthly package is tailored to the usage requirements of your business so that you can reduce the chance of unexpectedly high bills each month.
In sum, we think that the advantages of a hosted service for business telephone systems outweigh the potential disadvantages, in most cases. A hosted telephone system can benefit businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. At Midland Telecom Networks Ltd we offer a free on-site visit to assess the unique requirements of your business and tailors a package accordingly.