Traditional Phone Systems vs Hosted, which one is best for your business? by Activ Technology

Traditional Phone Systems vs Hosted, which one is best for your business?

by Activ Technology

With a marketplace full of options, we have put together a quick guide to find out which phone system solution is best for your business.

1. Traditional PBX

A physical exchange box on your company’s premises gives you a traditional solution which operates on both existing analogue and digital lines. This simple yet scalable option is ideal for businesses with limited connectivity, or those which require full ownership of a cost effective system.

Positive

• Regardless of the quality of your internet connection, you can rely on making and receiving crisp phone calls – every single time.

• A reliable system which can be maintained from your own premises

Negative

• Traditional PBX system will incur additional call charges, on top of the system cost

• To ensure a fully reliable system, it is advised that maintenance is taken out on your system – which comes at another additional cost

• As connectivity evolves, less and less traditional systems are being sold – making it more difficult to source maintenance and perform repairs if needed.

• By 2025, traditional ISDN lines will be unsupported – meaning a traditional PBX system would only be supported alongside SIP trunks.

2. Hosted PBX

The popular solution for businesses with reliable connectivity hosted systems store the exchange box off-site meaning costs are dramatically reduced with fixed monthly line rentals and minimal capital expenditure.

Positive

• Free unlimited UK calls included in your system cost

• No maintenance costs are required

Negative

• Phone call quality relies on the internet connection quality, if your internet connection isn’t strong enough or goes down – calls could be dropped

• Dropping calls can be avoided by having a backup analogue line included in your system

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)

Available on both traditional and hosted systems which have reliable connectivity, VoIP is a premium service which delivers high-quality voice calls over a data connection – significantly reducing the cost of calls and reducing overheads of traditional line rentals.

Positive

• Reduced cost of calls

• Simple set-up and configuration

• Flexibility: cost effective and speedy to add/remove new users as and when required

• Reduced overheads of traditional line rentals

• Resilient call management, if connectivity goes down it is possible to temporarily divert all calls to a mobile until the connection is back up and running

Negative

• Poor internet connection may affect the phone call quality

• Maintenance fees are required as part of the package

Which system would suit your business’ needs?