It might seem obvious, but the question of on-premise vs. cloud still comes up all the time. When choosing a phone system for your business, the toss-up between an on-premise solution or a hosted solution (hosted VoIP, hosted PBX) can be somewhat confusing. However, today, there really is no contest. On-premise options are dwindling quickly. It is safe to say that the only viable option for nearly all organizations is some form of cloud-based telephone solution. So the better question might be what type of hosted voice solution? 

With a hosted PBX, introducing a whole new phone system to your company isn’t as scary as it sounds.

It’s remarkably quick and easy to set up, so there’s no downtime for your business or expensive installation costs. Moreover, you can be safe in the knowledge that you’ll receive the best service and support and that your business’ communications are in safe hands.

More and more companies are opting for hosted phone solutions and with good reason, so what are some of the benefits of hosted business VoIP?

• Lower setup costs – the PBX is virtual, the initial investment is minimal as there is no need for the costly hardware and installation that a traditional PBX requires.

• Elimination of maintenance costs – your PBX and all that is required to run it is hosted by the provider. There are no additional maintenance fees, no telco/carrier fees, so there is no need to hire someone in-house to manage and maintain it. All users need is a phone on the desk (in many case that isn’t even needed anymore!). 

• Consolidated Costs – with the right hosted solution, specifically UC or UCaaS, you can even combine and consolidate other solutions you’re using today, like online meeting or virtual meeting platforms and other messaging, texting, and even web chat platforms. 

• A scalable solution – a hosted PBX is easy to scale up or down with minimal work and costs.

• User-friendly – For admins and end-users alike, a virtual PBX is conveniently simple to use and manage. There’s very little training required and no need for specialized skills so you can start using your new phone system right away.

• Unbeatable mobility & global potential – with a hosted PBX, employees can work from anywhere. All they need is internet access. Additionally, multiple offices are simply and easily connected by the same system further lowering costs.

Unified Communications as a Service (or UCaaS) is a form of hosted or cloud-based telephony and is a virtual phone system hosted for you by a service provider.

Again, the question is no longer “on-premise vs. hosted”, but now becomes “what type of hosted voice solution”. They come in many flavors and varieties and they go by many industry categories: Unified Communications (UC), Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC), and Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). These categories of UC are a little more specific and automatically include many more features, tools, integrations, and add in more communications channels like virtual meetings, messaging, mobility, and many more - in other words it unifies your communications. Other common names are Hosted VoIP, Hosted PBX, Hosted Voice, or even Cloud PBX, Cloud Voice and so on. These categories are a little more generic and may not necessarily include all that is a part of a UC, UCC, and/or UCaaS solution; simply being just a voice solution.

With so many Work From Home (WFH), remote work, remote staff… required today, things like virtual meeting or online meeting platforms are a necessity. Most UCaaS solutions already have those online meeting platforms built into the system and may even have agreements and tight integrations with the most popular platforms like Zoom, GoToMeeting, and Microsoft Teams. Therefore, it is already bundled together there is no need to pay extra money for several different and disparate solutions. It’s all included and it all works together seamlessly. Every user can have their own complete set of communications tools. 

Now the question is: which vendor? 

There are literally hundreds of UC, UCaaS, Hosted… vendors (and let’s not even get started on Contact Center or CCaaS options!). The “funny” part is most of those UC vendors are reselling, rebranding, and repackaging what the top few providers already offer. Some of them may add-in enhancements, most of them often strip features away. Sorting through it all is a monumental challenge. If you think you need help, we are here for you