How does it work? All the clever stuff is done by the Service Provider, at their end, all the customer does is rent the services they need, and, usually, manage them via a Web Browser.
So why is it good, and who is it good for? Well, its good for:
- Companies with low IT skills
- Companies who dont know exactly what or how many telecoms services they need
- Companies who dont want to tie up capital in a Phone System
- Companies who are wary of buying technology that will be outdated as soon as they buy it - rented Services tend to add features pretty rapidly
- Companies that have several offices in various locations, or staff working from home
- Compaines that need "resilience" ie. a system that can route calls to an alternative destination if the preferred destination is not reachable
Sounds perfect? Well, there are also downsides:
- Cost - on a call for call basis the cost will be higher over the longer term, although there are increasingly competitive deals emerging all the time
- Control - you are limited to the features and capabilities of the Hosted Phone system, and if you need something special or unusual it will either not be possible, or, if it is, will tend to be very expensive to customise
- Data security - if you, for example, record your calls, you dont have control of the archive or its security
You also need to ensure the Hosted Phone System Solution has "diverse routing" capability ie. if it is VoIP based they can send calls to analogue handsets in your offices if the IP trunks fail (and they will!). IP trunks are improving in reliability all the time but dont forget you are getting "cheap" calls at the expense of not "owning" the connection from end to end for the duration of the call, you are sharing it ....
Clever stuff though, and its what I use for my businesses ....
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