Reports of PBX’s death are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase the famous quote.
For years, the industry has been proclaiming the demise of the legacy phone system in favour of cloud-based platforms. The recent mass adoption of video conferencing software and collaboration platforms because of the shift to remote working has not helped PBX’s reputation as a ‘has-been’ technology.
Robin Russell, MD of Xarios Technologies, told UC Today that the term PBX is used very generally in the industry and that it all comes down to definition. He acknowledged that if ‘PBX’ is defined as an on-premise “piece of tin” then it’s days are numbered. But his definition of the term is the ability to deliver basic audio telephone calls within a business and the capabilities to handle that call, including advanced routing and call distribution.
“If you define that as PBX, then it will never be dead: you can build on top of that functionality with video, chat, omni-channel, and all the features that you want as a business”
“But if you define the piece of tin that sits on a wall in an office, then yes, that is dead because we're moving towards a cloud era.
“That ability to be routing telephone calls means PBX will never be dead – video isn't going to replace the telephone.”
Ultimately, picking up a phone and connecting instantly with a colleague or customer is still preferable to users than setting up a video call in advance to answer a question or two, Russell said, adding that email has been around for decades and did not eradicate the need for telephones.
Current popular software platforms, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, are still behind when it comes to PBX functionality, Russell said, and that discussion on the supremacy of video conferencing seems to focus on just B2B and internal communications, as opposed to how businesses communicate with their customers.
