Plan Ahead and Save Money in 2023 with Hosted Telephony
As the economic situation continues to bite across the board, businesses looking to cut their costs should consider making the move to Hosted telephony and what better time than the New Year.
As the year end approaches there is always a focus on budgets. So, with the new year just around the corner there is no better time to consider making the switch from a costly, old legacy phone system to a cloud-based Hosted telephony solution. It does not matter what industry your business is in as every industry has a lot to gain by making the switch to Hosted telephony right now. From food suppliers and medical practices to local governments and transport companies, the need to cut running costs has never been greater.
What is Hosted Telephony?
Business communications has been revolutionised by Hosted telephony. By converting voice into data, it allows business calls to be sent and received via an internet connection rather than traditional PSTN telephone and ISDN lines.
As a cloud-based telephony service, it can reside across multiple diversely located data centres. The service can be run within Virtual Machine environments and, therefore, not necessarily in any one place. Location diversity and system diversity is provided by having platforms diversely located across multiple locations. Further layers of security and availability can be added by mirroring the system to other data centres.
In simple terms a Hosted PBX (private branch exchange) is the same as a normal PBX but it sits in a data centre and can be replicated in other data centres providing enhanced availability should a problem arise at the first data centre. Rather than having a PBX installed onto a wall, or in a comms cabinet, within your building and iSDN or Standard Telephone lines connected to it, with a Hosted PBX the lines to the outside world (using SIP technology) are connected to the PBX by the main telephone companies, who are also in the data centre.
The customer has IP Handsets installed at their offices and these handsets talk to the Hosted PBX in the data centre via the customer’s internet connection (therefore there is the need for a good internet connection). The customer makes and receives calls in the normal way but it’s the PBX in the data centre that’s doing all the work, making sure the calls connect from the handset to the person that has been dialled. All this happens instantly and the user experience is no different to a traditional PBX.
The advantages of a hosted PBX are significant because the PBX is in a Secure Data Centre and not likely exposed to the typical problems customers experience such as power cuts or flood / weather damage, either damaging the PBX or making the building non-functional i.e. no electricity = no PBX.
The business continuity advantages of Hosted PBX are significant. These advantages are greatly enhanced when the Hosted Telephony Company also has a Hosted Mobile telephony solution built into the platform. The Business Continuity benefits of a true Unified Communications solution allowing full integration of the user’s desk phones and mobiles, plus full homeworking capability, in today’s world is extremely important.
Benefits of Hosted Telephony
Hosted telephony offers several key benefits for businesses including:
Cost savings: VoIP offers both short-term and long-term savings, providing you with a more cost-effective communications medium. From the moment you start using your new system, you’ll reduce spending. ‘Per user’ pricing and free calls between sites allows your business to benefit from immediate savings and you won’t have the ongoing costs of PSTN or ISDN lines.
Plus, it will incur fewer expenses in the form of maintenance, repairs and downtime than an in-house on-premises system.
Affordable call costs: Hosted telephony cut the costs of local, national and international calls.
Scalability: you can develop and expand your new system in line with your business objectives. As your business grows, you can increase the number of users in line with your business growth. Whereas with a traditional PBX you have to buy for your future expected growth before it happens.
Interoperability: devices and applications connect and communicate with each other enabling you to deploy best-of-breed solutions with seamless voice, video and data integration.
Local / National and Non-Geographic numbers providing you with a local presence in parts of the country where you may want to be noticed or giving that National coverage feeling with non-Geographic numbers: Connections to multiple points, allowing you to have local phone numbers anywhere which is particularly important for independent restaurants and hotels.
Get ahead of the rush
It makes sense to start planning to make the move in 2023 as there are huge changes ahead for telecoms in the UK in the next 3 years. The traditional copper phone lines are being shut off by BT at the end of 2025 and all lines will have to be transferred to All-IP-based networks beforehand. This will affect 16 million telephone lines and over two million UK businesses, which is a huge undertaking.
Many businesses are not even aware this change is coming or will think they can leave it until the last minute. But these businesses face the danger of not being able to find a comms provider with the capacity and resources to switch them over in time. And, when the old network is switched off, the majority of their comms services will literally stop working. These include:
- Phone lines and their numbers
- ADSL and FTTC broadband internet services
- Door–entry systems / CCTV
- Burglar alarms / Fire alarms / Panic alarms
- Fax machines
- Emergency phones / Emergency lift lines
- EPOS terminals
How can a business move to Hosted telephony?
To switch to an IP-based service, such as a VoIP or SIP solution, might sound like there’s a lot involved and a hassle you can do without, but a good comms provider will support you every step of the way.
It’s best to talk to a telecoms company that specialises in Hosted telephony in order to get the right service for your business. They will be able to assess your immediate needs and provide you with the scalability for your future requirements. Plus, they will be able to take all the hassle out of moving over to a new system, enabling you to keep your existing numbers and ensuring there is no impact on the day-to-day operation of the business.
Guidance from the Xcomm experts
The Xcomm team are experts in the field, providing Hosted telephony services for many high profile customers. We have a whole range of solutions to meet the needs of all businesses. So why not take advantage of the ultimate in telecommunications solutions and embrace this change before the final countdown begins.
Contact Xcomm to find out more on 03333 447 092 or email us at sales@xcomm.co.uk
Useful Glossary
ISDN – Integrated Service Digital Network, is the first iteration of high-speed internet. The service enables businesses to send data, such as voice calls or images, through their phone lines using the internet.
PBX – Private Branch Exchange (Telephone system)
PSTN – Public Switched Telephone Network is the classic analogue telephone system – the system that enables landline connectivity. It generally consists of copper telephone lines, fibre optic cables, microwave transmission links, satellites, undersea telephone cables and mobile networks.
SIP – Session Initiation Protocol is a method of transmitting VoIP calls
VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol is a method of data transmission allowing voice communications to be sent over the internet.
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