Enterprise IP PBX Buyers Guide: Features and Services That Matter

Executive Summary
Premise-based IP PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch eXchange) systems are changing how small through large businesses implement and use their voice communications. They are the modern heirs to the historic PBX systems that were the ultimate in business communications for the past thirty years. But premise-based IP PBX systems are cheaper and far more capable than their predecessors. They also integrate much better into business networks and data communications which, in turn, enable new applications that are still being discovered and applied to common business practices.
Modern premise-based IP PBX systems literally deliver multinational enterprise capabilities to even small businesses, often at a cost lower than the far more basic systems they are replacing. This Buyer’s Guide examines the premise-based IP PBX market and tells you what to look for in a proposed system. It also covers the relative advantages and disadvantages of a premise-based approach, and in particular, the advantages of integrating your systems so that they offer much better service than previous communications technologies your business might have employed.
The bottom line with premise-based IP PBX systems is that they can provide a relatively easy way for businesses of any size to move to VoIP and get a wide range of new features and capabilities for their phone systems. If your company is upgrading from a traditional TDM (time-division multiplexing) phone system, the savings can be substantial, and the new service will pay for itself almost immediately. In addition, businesses will want to take the time to then understand the new system and perhaps invest resources to integrate its capabilities into existing business processes such as sales and CRM tools.
In this Buyer’s Guide, you will find details on what to look for, how to buy, what you can expect to pay and how to go about maximizing your investment in VoIP.

Premise-based PBX Overview
A PBX (Private Branch eXchange) is essentially an automatic switchboard for telephone systems. It provides the same basic functions for any business or enterprise that the ranks of telephone operators with handfuls of wiring plugs did that you will remember seeing in old movies. Those essential features are to provide switching and connection between any two (or more) telephone users and make sure the connection remains in place until it is ended, at which point the system properly terminates the connection.
Any system that does this automatically for telephone calls within an organization is a PBX. The reason businesses move to PBXes is to avoid requiring every employee to have a direct line to the public telephone system, each of which incurs a connection and a line charge. Instead, a smaller number of lines get shared by all the users and managed by the PBX. This saves money and is more efficient.
All IP PBX systems are basically exchange and extension managers for calls based on Internet protocol – also known as VoIP and Internet telephony. The essential advantage they offer to small- to medium-sized businesses is the ability to add features that have only been affordable or available to large businesses up to now. VoIP and Internet telephony are usually also more cost-effective when looking at long-term operating costs, due to lower monthly fees and much lower costs to connect and complete calls.
There are three basic kinds of premise-based phone systems. The first kind is called keyless systems or KSU-less systems. They are very lightweight phone systems designed for organizations with fewer than 10 employees that also have very basic phone requirements. The advantage of these systems is that they are very inexpensive and very easy to set up and run. They are portable and can be moved easily if you relocate. However, in a typical keyless sytem, you get very little support and maintenance from your service provider. Also, additional features – such as those that prevent users from picking up a line in the middle of another call – are often impossible to implement. These systems are so simple that they are not considered PBXes and are in fact being phased out since more full-featured PBX systems are approaching them in cost while delivering far more benefits.