Ip Pbx: is it Any Good?
March 27, 2009
Angela Hayden asked:
The changing business environment has lead to a different set of communication needs for the organisations. For instance, now corporates have customers, dealers and suppliers from all parts of the world. Keeping in touch on an everyday basis is the necessity of the business. Not just this but organisations have branches in different countries or states too. Constant communication between these branches is of utmost importance in order to ensue smooth operations of the business.
Business houses till now have been using PBX for inter office communication. However a new turnkey technology has come on the block which has moved past all other modes of communication namely IP PBX. Chances are you might have heard of VoIP previously. Voice over Internet protocol or VoIP has come as a boon for business houses who have been on the look out for a cost efficient telephony solution. Voice over IP by utilising the service of the internet is capable of converging voice, data and video.
IP PBX or virtual PBX is essentially one such service offered by internet telephony. Let us have a look at how this contemporary solution can help to elevate the profit earning capacity of your business.
Not only can you switch your organisations communication structure from PSTN to IP PBX but can also sell this money minting solution to numberless business houses looking to deploy this service. By venturing into the telecommunication field by selling IP-PBX solution you will get the following benefit.
1. Voice over IP PBX allows you to make inter and intra office calls at running costs.
2. This means large savings along with faster decision making ability of the organisation.
3. Better interaction with the internal public leading to higher employee satisfaction in turn leading to a motivated set of efficient employees working as a cohesive unit.
4. Certain service providers can provide you with customised calling reports thereby enabling you to keep a check on per employee usage.
5. With VoIP PBX solution you give your clients fast and professional accessibility thereby capitalising on every call that your clients make to you.
You can Get Cheap VOIP DID's too!
The changing business environment has lead to a different set of communication needs for the organisations. For instance, now corporates have customers, dealers and suppliers from all parts of the world. Keeping in touch on an everyday basis is the necessity of the business. Not just this but organisations have branches in different countries or states too. Constant communication between these branches is of utmost importance in order to ensue smooth operations of the business.
Business houses till now have been using PBX for inter office communication. However a new turnkey technology has come on the block which has moved past all other modes of communication namely IP PBX. Chances are you might have heard of VoIP previously. Voice over Internet protocol or VoIP has come as a boon for business houses who have been on the look out for a cost efficient telephony solution. Voice over IP by utilising the service of the internet is capable of converging voice, data and video.
IP PBX or virtual PBX is essentially one such service offered by internet telephony. Let us have a look at how this contemporary solution can help to elevate the profit earning capacity of your business.
Not only can you switch your organisations communication structure from PSTN to IP PBX but can also sell this money minting solution to numberless business houses looking to deploy this service. By venturing into the telecommunication field by selling IP-PBX solution you will get the following benefit.
1. Voice over IP PBX allows you to make inter and intra office calls at running costs.
2. This means large savings along with faster decision making ability of the organisation.
3. Better interaction with the internal public leading to higher employee satisfaction in turn leading to a motivated set of efficient employees working as a cohesive unit.
4. Certain service providers can provide you with customised calling reports thereby enabling you to keep a check on per employee usage.
5. With VoIP PBX solution you give your clients fast and professional accessibility thereby capitalising on every call that your clients make to you.
You can Get Cheap VOIP DID's too!
I think this little post makes a lot of sweeping assumptions which are somewhat inaccurate…. An IP PBX is nothing more than a PBX system that operates over IP, if we’re talking about a premise based IP PBX, then voice traffic can run over your data network which eliminates the need to have two separate wiring infrastructures (cost savings)….but it has little to do with the internet and further more has little to do with connecting multiple offices. What has everything to do with connecting offices is either the internet & VPN, point to points, of MPLS/SIP connections. The fact that your phone system uses IP to transmit data will give you more options for both terminating calls to the PSTN or connecting offices… and each method has its pros and cons.
Now a company might use the Internet as a means to connect multiple offices using an IP PBX…. but many argue that the internet (although cheaper, and only cheaper because it eliminates the needs to have a secondary voice circuit) is not a reliable method for voice to travel due to many reasons – lack of QoS and latency being the big ones.
This post seems to be selling VoIP and IP PBX without much regard to how the technology actually works…. and this causes a lot of confusion about what VoIP and IP PBX actually means.
VoIP can mean a lot of things…. but it doesn’t directly mean cheaper. VoIP means you can use data networks instead of legacy TDM networks (this makes things cheaper)…. VoIP means you can have an IP PBX in your office which may come with great features since you can do a whole lot more with data voice packets than you ever could with analog voice traffic (but IP PBX systems aren’t usually any less expensive than a regular PBX)…. you can even still plug an IP PBX directly into an analog line to terminate your calls to the PSTN.
Now everyone uses Vonage as the prime example for VoIP. Let’s look at Vonage and why vonage is cheaper and therefore why people always confuse VoIP as something which is ALWAYS cheaper. Why is Vonage cheaper? Because instead of having to buy DSL or Cable internet PLUS phone service, you can ditch the phone circuit and use your data connection (which you’re paying for anyway) as the method to connect to a phone service provider. VoIP is the term given to essentially run voice over the internet, the internet being the “connection” from your phone to Vonage’s network. And the Vonage network is IP…. you could even look at it as one giant IP PBX.
So yeah… there are two big factors that need to be clarified when discussing VoIP and that is differentiating and identifying the relationship between a “connection” method and “premise based” hardware.