Steps to buying traditional PBX telephone systems

Steps to buying traditional PBX telephone systems

A PBX (Private Branch Exchange) phone system is a feature-rich, programmable environment for managing telephone extensions in an office. In a large office, the PBX may be contained in a separate wiring closet, although smaller businesses with more portable PBXes may see the PBX sitting at the front desk.

The up-front cost might be substantial, depending on the features you need and the number of extensions, and the first decision is to weigh the advantages of a traditional PBX versus an IP PBX. The latter is a more modern offering that uses the Internet instead of the public switched telephone network to route calls, and requires a high bandwidth Internet connection, such as a T1 or T3 line. Smaller IP PBX installations may be able to operate with a fractional T1 line if there are fewer phone extensions.

In purchasing a traditional PBX, the size of the system required is determined largely by the number of extensions you require. This includes phones on every employee's desk, along with fax machine lines, modems, credit card terminals, and other devices that must have a phone connection. Another factor in size is the number of trunks that must be used. After you determine the number of extensions, take into account future growth, and whether the PBX you are considering is extensible. Some PBX systems are scalable, and can accommodate additional extensions with the addition of a card that allows more ports to be added.

When buying a traditional PBX system, cost is an important factor, and can be substantial. In addition to the up-front cost of equipment and installation, the total cost of ownership must take into account regular maintenance. The cost of routine moves, adds and changes as employees move around the office or get hired in alone can be substantial, and may require a skilled on-staff person to handle this ongoing requirement.

The feature list is a major consideration as well. Before buying, make a list of all needed and desired features that you are looking for from your phone system, such as an auto-attendant, voice conferencing, voicemail, or other advanced features. In addition to finding out whether these features are available, it is important to find out what extra costs are involved. Many of these features come at extra cost. In addition, post-sale support is critical when making a buying decision for a PBX. The PBX needs to operate 24x7 with no downtime, and a failure could be devastating to a company, especially one that is highly dependent on customer contact. Determine what the vendor's support policies are, what response time would be in case of an emergency, and whether they have local technicians that would be available for site visits.

When considering a traditional PBX, don't assume that it is the only option. The IP PBX alternative is often more cost advantageous, and often more feature-rich than the traditional alternative. Because the IP PBX operates over the Internet, long distance telephony is less costly, and integration with existing productivity applications is more readily available. There may however, be some valid reasons for staying with a traditional PBX. For a large office with hundreds or thousands of telephones, the cost to switch to an IP PBX could be substantial, since every single phone would need to be replaced, since traditional telephones will not work with an IP environment.