Back in the day, all business phones were connected to copper phone lines and had one purpose—to make telephone calls. Since there was only one option to choose from, finding the right telephone system to complement your organizational operations was simple. However, that all changed when new solutions were created after internet integration.
Nowadays, the business world has access to internet-connected phones. These modern phone systems are more sophisticated than the traditional phone and come equipped with a wide variety of productivity-enhancing features. This has resulted in the emergence of a few notable business phone services including on-premise, cloud-hosted, and hybrid phone solutions.
The 3 Business Phone Systems You Need to Know About
Before getting into the different types of business phone services, let’s take a moment to talk a little bit about the foundation of these services: voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP). A VoIP phone is a type of phone that uses your internet connection to make or receive calls. These types of phones have exploded in popularity in the business world because they give workers the freedom to do their jobs from anywhere, in addition to offering useful features.
The creation of VoIP phones has, in turn, created hosted VoIP for business services that makes managing your phone solution easier. As mentioned earlier, these services include on-premise, cloud-hosted, and hybrid phone solutions. Every company has different needs and each of these services offers unique benefits that are designed to meet those needs. In order to identify the right service for your organization, it’s important to learn the differences between each service and prioritize what you need out of a business phone system.
On-Premise Phone
First and foremost, there is the on-premise software option where the hardware and equipment for your VoIP system will exist at your location. Specifically speaking, the hardware supporting your phone will be stored in a place within your building like your server or equipment room. With this option, your company will either own the hardware itself or it will be leased to you by a provider.
Each business phone service comes with advantages as well as disadvantages. We’ll get to that a little later. But, you should know that on-premise service tends to work the best with medium and large businesses. This is because it happens to be more cost-effective for organizations that have a higher number of users.
Cloud Hosted Phone
On the other end of the business phone service spectrum is the cloud phone. Cloud-based phone systems have become the most common choice for IP phone systems in business. Unlike on-premise, this is a solution where the resources that support your phone exist across multiple data centers provided by a service provider.
This is a great option for growing a business. As your company expands, your cloud phone service is scaled to fit the needs of your business.
Hybrid Phone
Last, but not least, there is the hybrid phone service model. This solution exists between on-premise and cloud as it combines these two business phone systems into one package. It offers all of the specialized features you’d expect like call transfer, unified messaging, video conferencing, and more. However, it relies on the individual strengths of both on-premise and cloud-hosted services. This option is usually a great choice for small businesses that don’t have the capital of a corporation but still want a good commercial solution.
The Pros and Cons
Now that you know more about each service, let’s touch on the pros and cons. On-premise systems normally have a higher upfront cost for the setup of the service. But, once you own that hardware, it’s yours. No having to pay monthly costs. This can limit scalability, however, because you’ll have to rely on your in-house resources.
Conversely, cloud phones provide easy scalability. Also, you are not responsible for upgrades, maintenance, or repairs as you don’t own the equipment. The drawback is that you’re paying a monthly fixed fee and you have less control over phone system customization.
Get Your Phone Solution
Finding the perfect phone system to support your business can be challenging, but a good place to start is by partnering with a reliable provider. At Stability Networks, we’re experts in all things IT-related. To make the decision-making process easier, we’ll examine your company’s needs and suggest a solution that works best for you.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
