It’s the age-old argument between the comfort and familiarity of the old versus the uncapped potential and endless possibilities of the new – can a modern business really benefit more from an in-house traditional PBX or is Cloud Communications the only way forward? Let’s find out.
Still life in the old dog yet or is it time for an upgrade?
Much like the floppy disk, the CD and, more recently, the USB flash drive, it would seem that the in-house PBX is fast becoming just another piece of dated technology that has had its day in the sun. Having said that, it would seem that there are still many companies out there that are reluctant to let go of the past and, after putting some thought into it, we’ve come up with some of the main reasons (or myths) why said companies feel the Traditional PBX still deserves the space it takes up in their offices.
- Greater control over privacy – at the number one spot here is the privacy issue. For many companies that handle and store sensitive information, handing over said information to an outside party is always going to be a cause for concern and some companies prefer to keep it in house. However, if privacy is an issue, does it not make more sense to store the information in a hosted cloud facility that is equipped with all the latest technical and security updates at no extra cost to your business?
- Requires just one single payment – unlike the monthly rolling costs of cloud hosting, traditional PBXs require only one single payment in exchange for a product that you can see, touch, hug, squeeze, kick, set on fire and do anything you wish to it because you paid for it and it’s yours. Having said that, sources have shown that, if you were to take into consideration the time and cost of all the manual updates an in-house PBX requires on a regular basis to keep it secure and fully functional then hosting in the fully maintained cloud that includes all of these services in the monthly fee quickly becomes the more cost-effective option
- Ideal for large multi-site organisations – for bigger companies with multiple sites that have already invested in the infrastructure, bandwidth and network settings required to host their own phone system, traditional PBXs may seem like more suitable option. Though this may be the case for businesses with a much greater disp
osable income and a greater concern over who controls their private data (i.e. financial institutions or law firms), the advantages cloud hosting offers to businesses with multiple sites are also vast and quickly remove inter-site collaboration complications by hosting from a single fixed-point location
So, what do we think altogether?
If you were to look at the predicted rise in the number of businesses set to migrate to the cloud within the next 10 years and combine it with the innumerable benefits that hosted solutions bring to businesses – things such as cost reduction, increased security, greater scalability options etc. – then it’s clear to see that, though still useful in some instances, the traditional PBX has no real place in the future for the vast majority of modern businesses.
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