Cloud Hosted IP PBX Enables New Telephone Apps

You know how apps have taken the smartphone market by storm. Now even desktop and laptop computers are changing their approach away from traditional software packages and toward apps. Have you been thinking that there should be some apps for your phone system, too?

Well, they’re here. AireSpring is offering a suite of apps that work with their AirePBX cloud hosted PBX system. What sort of things can you do with these apps? Let’s take a look.

CommPortal is the interface that controls your messaging on the PBX. You can check your voice mail online or have them sent to your email. Set up a one-number service that will locate you no matter which device you may be using at the moment. You can choose to prioritize some callers over others and even send some directly to voicemail. Click-to-dial will ring your phone first and then dial the party you want. Contacts are always available on whatever device you are using.

Now CommPortal is available as an app that works on multiple platforms so that you have your PBX with you at all times. Other apps are also available. Two of these are the “Call Me” button and the QuickDial Accelerator.

Call Me buttons make it easy to connect instantly to customers. You install this button on your Web pages or email signature. When the customer clicks on the button, they are prompted to enter their phone number. You phone rings immediately so you can capitalize on opportunities that may disappear in a few minutes.

The complement to Call Me buttons is the QuickDial Accelerator. This cool app lets you initiate a call right from your browser window. Simply highlight any phone number you want to call and the system will place the call for you. No more trying to wrangle two screens at once or risk dialing the wrong number.

Why are we seeing the appearance of telephone system apps at this time? It coincides with the move to cloud hosted PBX systems. The traditional PBX is all about switching calls between desk phones in the office and connecting to outside trunk lines when you need to make a call outside the company. This was cutting edge technology at one time. No more. Today’s telephony is all about unified communications and computer telephone integration. What we’d like to have in a business phone system was difficult to impossible to do previously and expensive to do now using the old school technologies.

Many companies that dream of having the latest business phone features choke when they see the price tag on the latest sophisticated IP PBX systems. They also worry about the day when their present PBX runs out of capacity or becomes unmaintainable and they have to face the music on capital investment. What they may not realize is that all of these issues can be easily avoided by employing cloud hosted PBX services.

Hosted PBX means that instead of buying and maintaining your own in-house PBX system, you pay for use of a much larger and likely more sophisticated PBX operated by a service provider. The service provider has the investment and expertise to support many clients. Economy of scale means that this approach is often less expensive than doing it yourself, even without the capital investment.

Are you dissatisfied with your current business phone system but unsure what to do next? If so, get more information about Cloud Hosted IP PBX solutions and compare with your other alternatives.

Cloud Hosted IP PBX For Features and Cost Savings

Is this the right time to move your business telephone services to the cloud? You are clearly at a decision point if your current system has run out of capacity, frequently needs repair or is no longer supported. But even if what you have in-house is working fine, you could be missing the opportunity to add productivity features or reduce your communications costs that the latest generation of hosted PBX solutions offer.

A good example is the new version 2.0 Cloud Hosted IP PBX from Airespring called AirePBX. This system completely integrates your fixed and mobile voice communications across all devices and all business locations. That’s important because smartphones are often left out of the loop with traditional PBX systems. If you have branch offices or have grown your business through acquisition, chances are that you have a hodgepodge of telephone equipment unique to each location.

It’s not hard to see how telecom managers can become frustrated when asked to do anything but make voice calls over the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). With most telephony solutions, the PSTN is the only common denominator. That can leave you wanting for some of the newest and most popular calling features. It can also be a source of unnecessary costs if you must use the public telephone network when you could be using your own data network.

AirePBX, like other hosted VoIP solutions, takes the job of managing a telephone network out of your hands and into a service cloud managed by specialists. With hosted PBX, there is very little in the way of telephone equipment onsite. The PBX goes away. So does all that telephone wiring. You no longer need telephone lines or trunks for outside calls, because that is all handled in the cloud. What you have is telephones that plug right into your LAN and an on-premise enterprise grade session border controller to manage VoIP and data traffic.

What kind of features can you expect with a hosted solution? AirePBX offers HD voice for sound clarity beyond what you think a telephone is capable of. It has a full featured auto attendant, or automated receptionist. With this, even the smallest companies can make a big impression on their customers without having to hire a dedicated operator. You can swap devices mid-call. If someone calls your office phone as you are about to leave your desk, quickly switch the call to your smartphone and continue the conversation on the go. Of course, you also get advanced call routing, find me/follow me, simultaneous ring, caller ID, call forwarding, call park, call transfer, conferencing, fax to email, unified visual voice mail, three-way calling, toll-free numbers, virtual extensions and the ability to manage it all using an online management portal.

Sounds good, but don’t you have to spend a lot of money upgrading your phones? Not at all. AirePBX provides advanced IP desk phones as part of your service at no extra charge. You also get the session border controller at no charge and free professional on-site install. You simply pay per seat per month for the number of phones, “seats”, that you are using. When you need more, you can easily add them. You never pay for capacity that you aren’t using. That alone gives you a business flexibility that you probably don’t have now.

What are the cost savings? AireSpring estimates that you can save up to 50% over the cost of traditional telephone service by moving your PBX or Key System to the cloud. How much can you save? Why not get a quote for cloud hosted IP PBX service from AireSpring and other competitive providers and find out. You could be looking at a major reduction in your communications expenses with better performance as well.