What are virtual or hosted PBX systems?

Conventionally, the mention of the words �PBX phone systems� brings about an image of expensive equipments, miles of entangled wires, and complex connections. For a large corporation having large number of employees, managing the PBX system requires lot of expertise. A company has to maintain dedicated staff for these specific tasks. Additionally, the system has to be updated periodically to meet the ever increasing needs of the growing company. A company can avoid this constant upgrades and maintenance tasks by switching over to a hosted PBX system.


A hosted PBX system operates in a virtual environment. There is no need for purchasing and installing any PBX equipments. A company simply has to subscribe with a hosted PBX service provider. All the functionalities of a standard PBX system are delivered to the company through a dedicated telephone or high bandwidth Internet connection. The company is therefore relieved from the trouble of constantly updating its PBX systems. The equipments are maintained and upgraded at the service provider�s location. Any new kind of functionality that is developed by a service provider is instantly made available to the company.


A hosted PBX system is shared among numerous users. Hence the cost that comes down to each client is far less than that incurred through a premise based PBX system. Apart from the cost benefits, a company can get all the advanced features which originally only large companies could boast of. Some of the advanced features include voice to email service (Voice Mail), fax to email service (fax mail), virtual numbers, local phone numbers of any specified area codes, toll free numbers, fax numbers, automated attendant, fax on demand, find me/ follow me, combined fax and voice mailbox, and quality answering service. All these features are made available at affordable monthly rates.


A PBX Phone system in a virtual environment helps a company to maintain a certain kind of physical independence. Through a hosted PBX system, a company can get local numbers of certain area codes. These local numbers give a local presence for the company without it being physically present in the region. The find-me/follow-me feature is useful for good client/customer interaction, since the customer service professionals of the company can always be contacted irrespective of their current location. A company having numerous satellite offices can appear to function from a single location using central local or toll free numbers. Calls to these numbers are routed automatically to the appropriate recipients by the system. A hosted PBX system thus gives a small company a big company image through the loads of features and virtual setting.