Saving Money with VOIP Hosted PBX Service

There are so many ways that a VOIP Hosted PBX can save you money I can’t begin to cover them all in a short space. However, here a few of the major cost saving aspects of a VoIP Hosted PBX system:

Cash Flow - Controlling cash flow is a major factor that determines the ultimate success or failure of any business, regardless if you are a start-up or an established business. Tight control over capital expenditures and operating expense is essential. On average, a VOIP Hosted PBX costs 20-40% less than a premise-based PBX. Also, CAPEX is minimized because you don’t have to “Buy the “Box”.

Additionally, because of the way premised based PBX systems are designed, you have no choice but to buy more equipment than you actually need to support your current requirements.

Sounds crazy, but it’s true. Why spend precious dollars now on equipment you won’t need until six or 12 months later or longer? A VOIP Hosted PBX allows you to pay as you grow. In other words, you only buy what you need to support current requirements.

Adding new employees to the system is fast, easy, and cheap. More importantly, you don’t have to pay for something until you actually need it.

If you are ever affected by a downturn in business, a VOIP Hosted PBX gives you the flexibility to reduce your expenses accordingly by reducing your telecommunications requirements with no penalty since you only pay for what you need, when you need it. Generally, you cannot do that with a traditional premise-based PBX without incurring some form of financial penalty.

Moves, Adds, and Changes - Unlike a traditional PBX, in a VOIP Hosted PBX environment, Moves, Adds and Changes do not require an on-site technician to make changes to your phone system. A VoIP Hosted PBX can be remotely configured by the provider, thus providing you with the flexibility to add, change, delete or move users within hours instead of days.

Eliminating costly monthly maintenance contracts will reduce your expenses because there is no need for a technician to visit your location every time you want to make a change. This is done remotely by the VOIP Hosted PBX provider, which also gives you with greater flexibility to respond quickly to changing business or market conditions.

Significantly Reduce Depreciation Losses - Traditional PBX systems depreciate almost 70% the day you install them. With VoIP Hosted phone service, you won’t have to worry about depreciation since you’re not purchasing equipment.

Although there are many other reasons that a Hosted PBX can save you money, such as reduced maintenance, elimination of the need to track and implement software patches, no requirement to maintain PBX equipment inventories, no vendor finger-pointing, and faster trouble resolution, the overall savings can be summed up by considering the Total Cost of Ownership of a traditional PBX compared to that of a VOIP Hosted PBX.

In the December 2005 issue of Business Communications Review, Ken Dolsky and Warren Williams of InfoTech published an in-depth analysis comparing the TCO/ROI of a Hosted PBX to that of a premise-based IP PBX for a single location with 50 users. They concluded for most instances, the Hosted PBX environment was the clear financial and performance winner. Even though their analysis shows a significant opportunity to reduce costs with a VOIP Hosted PBX, it is important to point out that the analysis did not not take into account large savings associated with increasing employee productivity and revenue using the Hosted PBX’s advanced features.

Here’s another piece of advice.

When you replace your traditional PBX with a VOIP Hosted PBX system, then plan on buying a bigger piggybank, too.

Bill Casey is the VP of Marketing for Reignmaker Communications, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. They offer Hosted PBX service.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Casey

PBX Phone Systems - Call Answering Service

Incorporated with a number of quality features, a PBX phone system with call answering services is an ideal solution for professional handling of calls. This sophisticated phone service enables you to operate your business from anywhere. Even those who are busy moving about can communicate with their clients, anytime.

Effective Call Management Facility

A PBX phone system effectively handles telecommunications among the staffs and clients in national and international locations. With rich features such as auto attendant, call transfer, auto-dialing, call forwarding and find-me follow-me services, you can professionally handle all the incoming calls to your workplace. Multiple call transferring is possible in this phone system that functions with the aid of a hosted server. Wherever you are, you can freely communicate with the callers, irrespective of location.

Call Answering Service to Access the Right Person

A PBX phone system never lets calls remain unattended or makes the caller wait for a long time listening to busy signals. This phone system is equipped with a wide range of menu options such as dial-by-name, dial-by-extension, group dialing and more. The callers are greeted with professional sounding messages during office-hours and non-office hours. Calls are automatically transferred to the particular staff that the caller is trying to contact. Through the find-me/follow me service, the incoming calls will be directed to the user's cell phone numbers or other personal numbers. In case the person is unavailable or busy, the callers can leave their messages in the voicemail box of these auto attendants. With the voice to email service, these messages will be sent to the concerned email IDs.

Configured According to Business Requirements

Small and medium sized business owners prefer to project a better image of their businesses. Hence, a PBX phone system that has all the functionalities of an expensive standard phone system in the offices will be a welcome feature, especially since it comes at economical rates. The great advantage of such a system is that it can be configured according to your particular business requirements.

AccessDirect, a leading communication service provider in the US, offers PBX phone systems with call answering service. Our PBX telephone systems are available for small and medium level businesses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_K_Kinskey

VoIP PBX Solutions For Businesses - What To Look For

Business communications has always been a challenging arena for management....subject to cost, function, reliability, and other pressures and concerns. The emergence of VoIP technology....and specifically application to PBX systems via IP based protocols....has provided an enormous opportunity for companies to reap many benefits.

Many companies today have multiple office locations around the country or around the world. Currently, each office uses its own PBX system and inter-office phone calls are routed through the PSTN and charged long distance and international rates by carriers. Most companies also employ workers on a part time basis who work from their homes. Those workers get reimbursed for telecommunication expenses they incur while performing their duties. It just makes business sense for companies to explore alternatives to consolidate their telecommunication systems and reduce costs.

The answer......purchase a Voice-over-IP enabled PBX system and deploy it in a Virtual Office setup.

Voice-over-IP (VoIP) is a fairly new technology for transporting voice calls over the Internet which allows users to realize substantial cost savings on long distance and international calls. Besides cost effectiveness, VoIP enabled PBX systems (or IP PBX) offer easy integration with existing telecommunications systems and are characterized with low operating costs as their upgrade is done through software updates rather than more expensive hardware replacement. Additionally, the technology simplifies the communication infrastructure (no need for separate voice and data cables) while offering high scalability.

Virtual Office models are used by companies that want to consolidate their communications, reduce costs and achieve more cohesive corporate images. To implement the model, a company has to install a single IP PBX system in its headquarters and distribute to employees IP phones or regular phones with VoIP adapters. Employees can make intra-office and inter-office phone calls through dialing PBX extensions. Such calls are routed through the Internet and are practically free. Company customers, on the other side, can dial a single inbound number plus extensions in order to reach the company's employees. The latter receive the calls on their IP/Regular Phones at any location in the world with Internet connectivity.

So what kind of a VoIP PBX solution does your business need? - a turnkey Virtual Office solution that could be customized to meet your company specific needs.

My recommendation for this solution is the highly acclaimed package from Packet8. Recently 8X8, Inc's Packet8 Virtual Office Solution for small and medium sized businesses received Network Computing Magazine's Editor's Choice award over competitive offerings from Covad Communications and Velocity Networks. That's some pretty stiff competition....and says a lot about Packet8's performance. The Packet8 Virtual Office solution received the highest overall rating for its rich feature set, call management tools and low subscription price.

The Packet8 Virtual Office is a cost-effective, easy-to-use alternative to traditional PBX systems that allows users anywhere in the world to be part of a VoIP-hosted virtual phone system that includes auto attendants, conference bridges, extension-to-extension dialing, business class voicemail and ring groups, in addition to a rich variety of other business telephone features normally found on high-end, premise based PBX systems. Their Virtual Office reduces an organization's telecommunications total cost of ownership (TCO) with a minimal initial investment combined with unlimited local and long distance business calling throughout the United States and Canada and Packet8's low international rates.

Now.....here's an overview of what to look for when making the business case for investment in VoIP technology for a VoIP PBX solution:

* Ways to save money for corporations.....

- Eliminate or reduce intra-office toll charges

- Avoiding service and support contracts on existing PBX hardware

- Eliminate the need for on-going Centrex services -- and charges

- Reduce expansion costs via lower costs for adds, moves and changes; lower user hardware costs

- Reduce the on-going costs for separate voice messaging systems

- Provide productivity benefits for remote and traveling workers who can be empowered with the same integrated capabilities as office workers

- Reduce user training and learning on phone and messaging systems

- Cost-effectively implement unified messaging

- Improve security

- Reduce systems downtime and improve performance

Additional benefits for call centers.....

- Virtualize call centers, allowing more flexibility in the center's configuration....either helping consolidation efforts, or providing enterprise capabilities to telecommuting call center workers

- Improve customer support services and reduce abandoned calls and call times

- Improve customer satisfaction and reduce customer turnover via improved call center services

Cost considerations....

- VoIP telecommunication hardware and software

- IP phone sets or soft phones

- Network upgrades for possible quality of service and performance upgrades

- Implementation labor and professional services

- On-going support and administration labor

- Support and maintenance contracts

- Increased support calls and potential user downtime losses on initial deployment

- IT Training

- User Training

- Write-off, write-down and disposal costs for existing telecommunication assets

Potential project risks......

- Quality of service/performance

- User training and adoption

- Administration and support skill levels and resources

- Proprietary vs. open systems interoperability

How Does The Solution Work?

Inter/Intra office calls.......

Caller A, who is located in the corporate headquarters, wants to make a call to Caller B, who is located in the corporate headquarters or in any of the company's offices worldwide.

Caller A picks up his VoIP device (IP phone, phone with adapter or softphone) and dials Caller B's extension.

The VoIP PBX server searches its internal database and obtains call routing information about Caller B The VoIP PBX server routes the call to Caller B's VoIP device.

If the destination number is unreachable, the system forwards the call to Caller B's voicemail.

As soon as Caller B picks up his VoIP device the conversation starts.

During conversation Caller A's VoIP device convert voice to digital packets and send them to Caller B's VoIP device and vice versa.

Both A and B can use traditional PBX functionality, like call on hold, caller ID, call forward, etc. Calls are free

Outbound calls.......

Caller A, who is located in the corporate headquarters, wants to make a call
to Caller B, who is a company customer.

Caller A picks up his VoIP device (IP phone, phone with adapter or softphone) and dials the customer's number.

The VoIP PBX server searches its internal database and obtains call routing
information about the VoIP carrier, who should terminate calls to Caller B's area code.

The call is routed to the VoIP carrier.

The VoIP carrier terminates the call to Caller's B number over the PSTN.

During conversation, Caller A can use traditional PBX functionality, like call on hold, caller ID, call forward, etc.

Calls are charged on time basis at pre-negotiated rates with the VoIP carrier

Inbound calls.....

Caller A, who is a company customer, wants to make a call to Caller B, who is a company employee.

Caller A picks up his phone and dials the company's central access number.

The VoIP PBX server prompts the caller to enter an extension.

Caller A dials Caller B's extension.

The VoIP PBX server searches its internal database and obtains call routing information about Caller B.

The VoIP PBX server routes the call to Caller B's VoIP device.

During conversation, Caller B can use traditional PBX functionality, like call on hold, caller ID, call forward, etc.

Calls are either free if the company uses a local access number or charged on a time basis if the company uses a toll free one.

Voice over IP (VoIP) technologies carry great promise to reduce telecommunication and networking total cost of ownership while empowering businesses with new capabilities and agility. When making your decision on deploying a Virtual Office VoIP PBX solution consider the strategic and tangible benefits as well as the costs and risks outlined above. If it all seems too overwhelming seek out the assistance of an unbiased independent advisor such as Business-VoIP-Solution

Michael is the owner of FreedomFire Communications....including DS3-Bandwidth.com Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Lemm

What is EPBAX???

The electronic private automatic branch exchange (EPABX) is equipment that has made day-to-day working in the offices much simpler, especially in the area of communication.

The EPABX may be defined as a switching system that makes available both internal and external stitching functions of any organisation.

The selection of an EPBAX is a difficult task and requires deep knowledge of traffic pattern of the office. By using an EPABX both the internal and external needs of the organisation are fully served. With the advent of powerful microprocessors and advancements in the field of computers, the EPBAX can boast of versatile features. Hotline can be established between the boss and his immediate subordinates.

The feature of a call transferring and forwarding is another area enabling mobility of the users. Autoconferencing and automatic redialling of numbers found engaged on the first trial are some of other advancements in the features of the EPBAX.

The selection of an EPBAX for an organisation should be preceded by a thorough study of the needs of the office. The exchange should be supporting features like voice DISA-n-auto attendant. This feature helps in doing away with a receptionist or an attendant. Further, the specifications should ensure inbuilt paging, auto fax homing, hot outward dialing, remote dialing, remote servicing and auto shut dynamic lock.

Source:- http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99oct28/science.htm#4

Mobile Phone Tips

1. Mobile phones are susceptible to liquid logging and there are chances that water / oil / milk / tea / cold drink / curry / shaving foam may get in and damage it. Please ensure you keep your phone away from all such things. The phone can not be repaired if it's undergone moisture damage. The manufacturer does not give any warranty for such cases.
2. The Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) may get damaged in case pressure is applied on the surface. While keeping the phone in the pocket or while seated, always check that it is not in contact with any sharp/hard object. It's advisable to use pouches or mobile phone covers to avoid LCD damage.
3. Modern mobile phones are designed to squeeze in loads of features in a compact size. The Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are multi-layered and are mounted with surface-mounted devices. The contact of such Integrated Circuits and components on PCB are in microns (µm) (10^ - 6 meters) and a small impact / shock / jerk may displace the components or break the tracks. The manufacturer does not give any warranty for such cases. Mobile phone pouches or covers are of great help in avoiding such damages.
4. The plastic cosmetic parts lose their glare/color due to heavy exposure to sun light. To avoid direct sun exposure, one must use mobile pouches or covers.
5. Every mobile handset has an IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity), which is a unique number and one can access this number by pressing *#06#. The mobile warranty is attached to the IMEI number, and it's also useful in the event of theft.
6. The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you are out of coverage area, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network. This number 112 can be dialed even while the keypad is locked.
7. If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone on your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the other person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the phone on their end. Your car will unlock.
8. Mobile phones should not be frequently charged, it may reduce the battery life. Always track the battery charge indicator, and carry mobile charger in purse/bag/car to avoid the contingency of battery discharge.
9. Electronic items have deteriorative effect if contaminated with dust. The use of the pouches or mobile phone covers shall be useful to keep your mobile phone free from dust.
10. Nokia handset comes with a reserve battery. To activate, press the keys *3370#. The cell will restart with this reserve and will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge the cell next time.
11. There are many authorized sources that provide entertainment software etc.
12. It's always advisable to install antivirus software on your mobile phone.
13. Make the best use of the user manual.
14. When your phone is out of network coverage, switch off the handset or else the battery may get drained.
15. Finger nails or sharp objects may damage the keypad. Use fingers while pressing the keys.
16. Bluetooth should be turned on only when it is required. Keeping Bluetooth on unnecessarily makes your phone open to malicious viruses.
17. To enhance the life of your charger, it should be unwound and disentangled.
18. While removing the battery, it's advisable to first switch the handset off.
19. When your mobile phone is not used for a long duration, remove the battery and keep it separately.
20. Always use accessories recommended by the manufacturer.

Article Source:- http://www.themobilestore.in/mobilestore/faces/jsp/mobilePhoneTips.jsp?catalogueID=3&categoryID=41&parentCategoryID=18