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IP-PBX (VoIP) vs Traditional PBX Phone Solutions: Which Is Best?

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As today’s business environment is so highly dependent upon greater connectivity amongst stakeholders, vendors, customers, staff members and supervisors – as well as small businesses often succeeding or failing based on the effectiveness of their communications systems – being dependent upon traditional phone companies for technology and service is often an expensive, time consuming and tedious process.

As a result, many businesses find themselves in the predicament of whether or not they should commit to upgrading to a VoIP phone solution (and then whether that should be hosted or on-premise) versus continuing to use a traditional PBX phone system. To make a decision that’s right for you you need to have a clear understanding of traditional PBX, as well as hosted and on-premise IP-PBX (VoIP).

Traditional PBX

Traditional copper based non-VoIP PBX is coming to the end of its life cycle with more copper services being turned off each day.

The main issues with a traditional PBX phone systems are:

  • More expensive call costs
  • Line rentals
  • Traditional PBX systems are based on an increasingly obsolete technology, which results in the limiting of features
  • Limited integration
  • Clunky interfaces making navigation needlessly difficult and time consuming
  • Minimal reporting
  • Lengthy contracts
  • Expensive maintenance contracts attached
  • Poor resale value
  • Limited functionality as you are locked into what was originally purchased
  • Expensive upgrade costs, such as adding additional phone lines
  • Increased running costs as traditional PBX units are a draw on power

Upgrading to an IP based phone system is now more important than ever before – but which solution is right for you? Hosted PBX or On-Premise PBX?

PBX Phone System eStorm Australia PBX Brisbane

Hosted PBX

Hosted PBX or Hosted VoIP, also known as a Virtual PBX, is an Internet phone system or private branch exchange (the private telephone network used within a company to make and receive phone calls outside of the business) delivered as a hosted service. This means that the provider is responsible for housing the IP-PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange), as well as maintaining and managing the technology required to provide the services to the phone system.

How it works

At the user level, an employee’s IP desk phone connects to a router where the calls, signalling and features all run through an IP-PBX server based at the service provider’s location. A monthly fee is typically paid for this service, with businesses having the ability to add and remove features as and when they are needed, which provides a significant degree of flexibility.

The advantages:

  • The third party provider is responsible for running, managing and upgrading the Hosted PBX
  • A significant reduction in installation, operation and maintenance costs
  • No training or speciality knowledge required for running the phone system or adding extensions etc., as the PBX provider maintains the system
  • Scalable with your business
  • Superior integration – including CRM integration
  • Simple addition of extra lines
  • Low monthly service cost
  • Outsourced maintenance
  • Extended features, like conferencing (may come with additional costs)
  • Highly flexible – this includes month-to-month payments to avoid lock in, as well as being able to transfer office extensions to mobile
  • Potential to reduce telephone costs by up to 80% by leveraging SIP trunks, WebRTC, free calling to remote extensions and reducing the number of telephony lines
  • Superior call quality when paired with the right internet connection
  • PBX housed in a data centre environment could see an increase in efficiency and stability, as data centres are specifically equipped with cooling and other infrastructure to house them

The disadvantages:

  • Connections and voice quality are as a result of the Internet connection
  • Loss of power or internet results in loss of phone service, however calls can be routed to voice mail and cell phones
  • Customisation of features are limited to what the provider offers

We recommend utilising a Hosted PBX solution for businesses with 1-50 employees.

Learn more about Hosted PBX / IP PBX systems and solutions.

Hosted VoIP PBX phone system Brisbane

On-Premise PBX

On-Premise PBX offers all the same benefits as a hosted PBX solution (including management of your system), with the only real difference being that your PBX system resides at your location instead of at the providers location.

This has its benefits:

  • Monthly fees can be cheaper due to using your own infrastructure
  • On-Premise PBX makes more sense in terms of efficiencies for larger and more complex use cases and environments

The disadvantages:

  • Loss of power or internet results in loss of phone service
  • Technical issues may require a qualified technician onsite, which can be subject to availability and scheduling
  • Can lead to an increased power bill depending upon the size of the environment

We recommend utilising an On-Premise PBX solution for businesses with over 50 employees.

Learn more about On-Premise PBX systems and solutions.

If you’re looking for a hosted or on premise PBX phone system provider, you can find our Hosted PBX solutions here and our On-Premise PBX solutions here. If you’d like any more information or assistance, please feel free to call us at any time on (07) 3120 0640 or email us at [email protected]

SIP, VoIP – What does it all mean??

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voip
When it’s time to replace your old traditional phone system there are a number of Internet Protocol (IP) based solutions that are available to small business. The challenge is to select the system to suit your needs so that you can fully reap the rewards of cost efficiency and increased productivity. Before you purchase, it’s an idea to understand more about the underlying technology that will support your business today and into the future.

There are two terms that you may come cross when shopping for a new system – SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). When looking into these technologies it may seem like these are either/or options. So let’s clarify this up-front: VoIP refers to a group of protocol technologies (both proprietary and open) that enable calls to be made over the internet, while SIP is one of the many protocols that enable VoIP.

It can be confusing when shopping for a new system given the acronyms involved so let’s go into this with a bit a more detail.

FOLLOWING PROTOCOL

Firstly, why is protocol important? Internet phone systems depend on protocols to function. Protocols determine technology rules and parameters that enable digital devices, phone systems and computers to communicate with each via message exchanges. Protocols also dictate the very nature of that communication and therefore create an essential rule book that can be followed by developers to create “end points” or devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets or printers.

VOIP PRIMER

VoIP technology lets you use the internet to make and receive telephone calls instead of using traditional phone lines. It works by breaking down an audio signal into very small segments that are converted into code that are transmitted over the internet.

For VoIP you need a broadband Internet connection, a traditional phone and an adapter; a VoIP-enabled phone; or VoIP software on your computer.

VoIP systems function from a central network that manages traffic. This leads to cost savings as there’s only one network for your voice and data with one supplier. With a broadband connection you can make PC to PC phone calls for free, anywhere in the world. You can also make PC to phone calls for a modest fee. You have the option of paying as you go or can subscribe to a VoIP service provider and pay a monthly fee that gives you unlimited calls.

With a VoIP phone system, your phone number is virtual allowing you to take it with you when you change premises or are on the road. VoIP also gives you a range of communication extras like call forwarding, voicemail and caller ID. You can also add videoconferencing at a reasonable price.

This means they can become overloaded when your network has volumes of data, creating lag times in communication. For this reason, this protocol is a good option for small businesses for mainly voice communications requiring fewer locations.

As they connect directly in the data network, to activate a call you just lift the receiver. Your chosen service provider then links your handset via the internet to the regular phone system.

VoIP helps you to reduce costs due to a number of factors including reduced equipment and line rental charges; reduced long distance call charges; reduced hardware and maintenance costs; and flexible subscription plans that allow you to select a plan best suited to your usage requirements.

SIP – A POWERFUL PROTOCOL

When shopping for a new phone system you may also come across SIP (Session Initiation Protocol). This is a “signalling” protocol that’s used in VoIP communications and allows voice, video calls, internet conferencing and instant messaging. It has become a popular VoIP protocol with companies that provide unified communication (UC) solutions. UC applications give your business voice, video and streaming media capabilities like web conferencing.

To explain it differently, SIP is the underlying technology that starts a voice communication session over the internet (or another type of data network). This might be a VoIP phone call between two people or conference call with several parties.

This form of IP telephony uses SIP trunks and does the same job as a traditional phone line. No longer physical wire, these virtual phone lines or trunks connect your phone system back to the phone provider’s network.

SIP Trunking is another term you may come across when researching new phone systems. The SIP Protocol enables SIP Trunking, a virtual connection to the regular phone network or public switched telephone network (PSTN) over a physical line that is often shared over your existing data connection. SIP Trunking uses a packet switched model for making voice connections between people over a data network. When it’s combined with IP PBXs and IP VPNs it can transform the way your business handles phone calls and multimedia applications like video and unified communications.

By using SIP Trunking you can rationalise disparate legacy networks and reduce costs. It’s also an ideal way to introduce unified communications and multimedia.

SIP Trunking can help your business to replace ISDN and analogue phone lines with a simpler, more cost-effective alternative. Also, you can centralise your IP PBX to reduce equipment and carriage costs as well as provide a more consistent experience for your customers. And finally you can “converge” your voice and data networks to help reduce costs and use your bandwidth more efficiently.

SIP is designed to handle heavy data flow as the processing is not centralised. As a result, SIP is used by businesses with a lot of branches or remote workers that need multimedia communications.

SIP Trunking allows the voice and data traffic in your business to be carried over a single private IP virtual private network (VPN). This means you can reduce overall line rental and bandwidth costs as well as simplify maintenance as you have a single network.

Telephone systems are an important part of every small business. The terminology involved can be confusing. However, by understanding a little more about the underlying technologies you’re in a better position to make the right choice for your unique needs.

To find out more about communications options that’s right for your business, contact one of the friendly staff at eStorm.

Why make the switch to VoIP and PBXaaS?

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This week eStorm Australia released our PBXaaS and VoIP services for businesses and we want to give you an overview of what this can mean for your business.

PBXaaS (PBX as a Service) from eStorm Australia is a revolutionary business telephony service that provides an industry leading feature set, without the traditional maintenance, hardware, phones and cabling.

With features such as multi-way calling, voice to email and call diverting, internal and external communication could not be easier, or cheaper! For a full list of the features we offer, check out this page.

VoIP calls are a cheaper, yet better quality alternative to regular phone calls. eStorm Australia offers one of the highest quality VoIP networks in the country, allowing us to provide you with the guarantee that your calls will sound at least the same, if not better than a regular phone call. eStorm Australia also offers some of the cheapest VoIP rates in the country.

How VoIP works


Why make the switch to VoIP?


Increased Flexibility And Mobility

Internet telephony enables users to integrate software programs, such as e-mail, e-fax, and remote conferencing over the Internet via the telephone. In other words, a VoIP user can speak to somebody over the phone while accessing other applications, including the Internet simultaneously. VoIP users can take their adapters anywhere, making it possible to hold telephone conversations at venues that offer an Internet connection. An increase in mobility assists individuals who are always on the move, especially corporate employees who are required to travel. Long distance VoIP calls are also relatively cheaper than traditional cell phone calls.

Increased Productivity

VoIP allows employees to multi-task without interruption by letting users attach documents, conduct virtual meetings, and share data via video conferencing. VoIP also has enhanced voice clarity to make it indistinguishable from, if not better than traditional telephony.

Cut Costs

The cost of using a VoIP telephone is much cheaper than using a traditional phone. Making long distance phone calls cheaper when using a VoIP provider. (See eStorm’s prices here).

Overall, making the switch to VoIP and PBXaaS is a great benefit to your business in so many ways. For more information on this service, give us a call on 1300 378 676 or send us an email at [email protected]