What is a cloud hosted PBX?

A cloud-based PBX (a fancy term for a business phone system) is a full featured phone system that’s hosted in ‘the cloud’. This just means that your phone system that once was physically on your premises is now a hosted phone system in a data center. Cloud PBX’s have long since passed general adoption by businesses and, according to Gartner research the trend will accelerate.

 

Advantages of cloud PBX

  • Cost – pricing for a hosted PBX solution is a monthly pricing model, whereas traditional, premise-based PBX’s have a one-time cost with optional support plans after installation.
    • The expense of a traditional (premise-based PBX) telephone service goes away. All you need now for your phone service is an internet connection.
    • Cost model is per employee/per month, so you only pay for what you need. Scale up or down as your business needs.
    • Multiple locations are supported by one phone system in the cloud
  • Disaster Recovery – Because it’s hosted in a data center, the cloud PBX runs in a highly redundant (think back-up power and backed up servers) environment.
    • Built-in failover in the event of Internet or power loss.
    • Calls automatically rerouted to other data centers so customer experience is not affected
    • Customer down time is minimized if not eliminated.
  • Remote Support.
    • Support issues are identified and resolved usually in minutes.
    • On-site support is no longer needed.
  • Installation is quick and easy because there is very little (if any) hardware to install.
  • Scalability
    • Scales to your needs as you grow, using exactly what you need, when you need it
    • Phone lines can be added or deleted in a matter of minutes
  • VoIP Phone Compliant
    • Works with a variety of 3rd party VoIP phones (premise-based PBX’s use proprietary phones)
    • No licensing required (premise-based PBX’s often charge for a phone license in addition to the cost of the phone itself)
    • 3rd party softphones will work with cloud-based solution

 

Features of a cloud-based PBX:

  • Call Conferencing
    • Conference Bridges
    • 3-Way Conference Call
  • Call Management
    • Attended Transfer
    • Auto Attendant Answering
    • Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)
    • Barge
    • Burstable Call Paths
    • Busy Call Forwarding
    • Call Forwarding
    • Call Hold
    • Call Park
    • Call Queue
    • Call Recording
    • Call Routing Time Frames
    • Call Waiting Indicator
    • Caller ID
    • Caller ID Blocking
    • Caller ID Routing
    • Direct Inward Dialing (DID)
    • Direct Inward System Access (DISA)
    • Directed Call Pick Up Disable
    • Do Not Disturb
    • Find Me Follow Me
    • Incoming Call Blocking
    • Incoming Caller ID Routing
    • Listen Live
    • Multicast Paging
    • Office Intercom
    • One Button Redial
    • 1-6 Digit Extension Dialing
    • Outbound Dialing Rules
    • Outgoing Call Blocking
    • Premium Call Reporting
    • Ring Groups
    • Shared Virtual Call Paths
    • Speed Dial
    • Unattended Transfer
    • Voicemail
    • Visual Voicemail
    • Voicemail to Text
  • Music on Hold
    • Commercials on Hold
    • Customer Music on Hold
    • Default Music on Hold
  • Virtual Auto Attendants
    • Multiple Top-Level Auto Attendants
    • Sub-Level Auto Attendants
    • Always On/Time Based Auto Attendants
  • ACD Routing
    • Agent routing
    • Pause/Un-Pause Queues
    • Reason Codes
    • Tally Codes Zero Out
  • Origination and Termination
    • Domestic Origination/Termination
    • E911 Support
    • Endpoint Templates
    • International Termination
    • Share Line Appearance
    • Toll Free Numbers
  • Reporting
    • Accounting and Billing Reports
    • Activity Reports
    • Call Center Reports
    • Call Detail Records (CDR)
    • Call Traffic by Extension
    • Call Volume Graphs
  • SIP Trunking
    • Enhanced SIP Trunking (Failover Routing)
    • Basic SIP Trunking
    • PBX agnostic

 

Contact us today to find out if a cloud phone system is right for your company.

 

Why Evolve Complete Cloud PBX?

We know how confusing some hosted PBX service provider’s pricing plans can be. You think you’re getting a certain service for a fixed price only to find out that additional features that are critical to your cloud PBX are considered a la carte and your price gets more and more expensive.

Evolve Complete gives you all the essential and most advanced features bundled into a fixed competitive price.

Included in our service:

  • Unlimited domestic inbound and outbound calling (toll free calling billed on a per minute rate)
  • Unlimited user and hardware support
    • Support ticket portal
    • Remote Access App for on-site device troubleshooting
  • Cloud PBX core feature set
    • Advance Call Routing
    • Multi-Level Auto Attendant
    • Ring Groups
    • Call Queue
    • Call Agent Log In/Out
    • Call Reporting (CDR)
    • Real Time Agent Call Reporting
    • Find Me/Follow Me
    • Voice Mail to Email
    • Hosted Fax
  • Evolve Complete Unified Client (go to our Unified Communications page for more details)
    • Team Chat
    • Video Conferencing (ad hoc or scheduled)
    • Screen Share
    • Mac/PC softphone
    • Voicemail Management
    • Call History
    • Contact Dialing

 

Most hosted VoIP providers don’t like to talk about installation because that coordination is key. Without the proper focus and planning, installations can go badly and have some unpleasant consequences.

 

Installation includes:

  • System configuration meeting to ensure accurate routing and user details
    • Each customer is assigned a project manager who is dedicated to that customer throughout the installation and number migration process
    • Pre-installation coordination meeting to review call routing, employee extensions, phone number assignment, etc.
  • Programming of all phones and UC devices
    • New phone programming
    • Wherever possible existing phone re-purposing
  • Consultation with customer IT support
    • Confirm network routing rules on local network
    • Confirm power requirements for on-site devices
    • Confirm Internet connectivity is Hosted PBX/VoIP ready
  • Assistance on day of migration to ensure correct and accurate call routing and device functionality
  • User training
    • Receptionist Training
    • Account Admin Training
    • User Training
    • UC and mobile app training

 

Contact us today for a cloud PBX proposal for your business!