All you need to know on Private Branch Exchange or PBX system

Phone calls are crucial for business communications. Be it within the departments or with the clients, they help in getting the information flowing. Using a telephone service that runs on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) poses a problem when the requirement for phone lines increases. This takes a toll on your business profits by increasing your phone bills. It may be a brutal blow for the small businesses that are struggling after the pandemic. The POTS or Plain Old Telephone System requires physical phone lines to ramp up your usage of phone numbers. But, what if you can free yourself from this misery? What if you can run a private telephone network of your own? That’s exactly what a PBX system helps you establish. Going further, we shall explore the lengths and breadths of what PBX is & how it can be used.

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An introduction to the PBX phone systems

PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange and is a private telephone network used within a company. A PBX system facilitates building an internal telephone network for your business. A traditional phone system uses copper phone lines to transfer voice data from one phone to another. Thus, the count of phone numbers used can only be increased by pulling more telephone lines from the phone service provider. This means an increase in the infrastructure of the external phone network from the service provider. But using a PBX system makes it possible to bring this telephone exchange within the control of your business. Why rely on a third party, when you can do it yourself without much hassle? This saves you from a great deal of expense involved in purchasing the additional traditional phone lines.

PBX as a business phone system

The PBX or Private Branch Exchange provides a phone solution for increasing the efficiency of your business communications. It offers your business a privately owned phone system that facilitates communication between the devices connected with it, at zero cost! So, if you are running a business that has frequent information flow to & fro between your departments, it’s a no-brainer to use PBX-enabled phones than physical phone lines offered by a telephone service provider.

How do PBX systems work?

PBX system functions by splitting the telephone line from your service provider into multiple lines. These lines would then form the foundation for your internally managed network for communicating. The network shall also contain physical wires or internet routers, landline phones or IP phones based on the chosen platform to operate the PBX. With the necessary infrastructure in place, the PBX can be operated using analog lines or digitally using voice over IP technology.

Types of PBX phone system

PBX is an umbrella term for various methods of incorporating a private telephone exchange for your business. So, there are phones with a different system underneath that governs their functioning in each method. Broadly speaking PBX systems are bifurcated as follows.

• Analog PBX systems
• Digital PBX systems

The former runs tributaries of traditional copper line wiring around your facility while the latter uses an IP phone system. Analog PBX system is the oldest amongst the types of PBX systems available. Also known as Traditional PBX systems, they are well known for their infrastructure limitations such as lock-ins! Yes, you read that right. Your exclusive telephone exchange needs to be locked in with a specific type of system which demands the usage of customized phones. Or it can also be locked in with a vendor whose accessories can only be used throughout the system. All these seem more like a hurdle rather than an expressway these days. Analog PBX system has so much inertia that a change to the existing phone network comes along with a huge invoice! So, a dynamic internal network for communications is difficult to implement with a traditional PBX system.

Say, your business space is pretty much all occupied. There is no more space for any additional installations. You can’t pull any more traditional copper lines for availing additional numbers. In this case, a cloud-based PBX is what your business might need. So, enter the latter – Digital PBX systems! It uses VoIP technology to provide advanced features for your business communications.

A digital PBX system is known by umpteen names in the market. Some may call it the cloud PBX system, whilst others might say it is a VoIP PBX system. You can also come across people referring to it as an IP PBX system. But all you need to know is that it is an open-standards-based IP PBX that allows the usage of the internet for handling calls. Listed below are the different types of PBX systems from the digital regime.

• Hosted PBX system
• Onsite PBX system
• Hybrid PBX system

A hosted PBX system is a cloud phone system. It is synonymous with the likes of running a business with digital phones. Hosted PBX solutions offer additional features by enabling Interactive Voice Response (IVR), voicemails, music during call waiting, auto call routing & transferring and so.

All the aforementioned is possible also through an onsite PBX system. This system suits the business owner who is sceptical about renting some cloud space for their exclusive network. Also, those who insist on going by ‘What belongs to me, stays with me’ can also adopt this type of PBX provider.

A hybrid PBX system as the name indicates is the right mix of both the onsite & hosted PBX services. Being run on a VoIP system, this PBX features the usage of SIP and IP phone systems. SIP trunking can be a saviour to your small business since it makes your phone systems allow digital phone signals to reach conventional desk phones. Yes, it is possible to connect a cloud phone with a desk phone through SIP & you too can make it happen by onboarding a hybrid PBX!

A list of PBX phone system providers

After scouring through a wide range of resources, we have taken the privilege of relieving our readers of all the burden to find the top PBX system providers in the UK. In no particular order, here they are,

• The VoIP Shop
• Nextiva
• Ring Central
• 8×8
• Vonage
• Dialpad

The fee for their PBX services range as cheap as 15 quids a month & goes all the way up to 60. Why this difference you ask? This can primarily be attributed to the package that you select. If your business has a concentrated customer base overseas, then you might want to choose the package which covers international calling across many countries. If you plan to scale your business to the moon, then you might need a package that provides admin privileges to modify advanced features. Speaking of features, the following section elaborates on this part of the PBX system in great detail.

Benefits of the PBX telephone system

Users of the PBX phones are blessed with so many features at their disposal. Following is a consolidation of some of the features that PBX phone systems bestow upon your business.

Features that PBX office phone system provides

• Light on coffers! Choosing a cloud-based PBX might free you from the duties of commissioning a server & other related hardware while providing HD call quality. It also saves on the regular maintenance needed in the case of an onsite PBX.
• Ample customisations! Right from having a recorded message to greet your customers to monitoring real-time analytics, a PBX system gives you the power to do things.
• Instant flexibility! It does not matter whether your offices are in different locations or your customers are in different time zones, PBX provides its users to switch devices according to their comfort. This enables your employees to access customer details from any device anywhere as long as they are connected to the PBX. Thusly, your business goes on uninterrupted!
• Room to scale! Want a few more lines for your workforce? Granted! Need some additional storage capacity? Done! Want to increase the participants’ limit for video calls? Great, PBX got you covered. Be assured that scaling your requirements does not take much time with PBX.

PBX – Your modern business telephone system!

Modifying your business telephone system should not be a perpetual process. It is not that a business owner wakes up every morning thinking of ways in which his private exchange can be modified. So, it is imperative that you get things done right the first time. Choose a VoIP provider who provides the services you need without burning a hole in your pockets. If you already have an onsite PBX, try getting on with a hybrid PBX system, else you are better off with a hosted PBX since it provides greater scalability & flexibility. Jot down the doubts should there be any & prepare for a face-off with your VoIP provider. That’s a great way to start your journey with PBX!