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Businesses are going to need Hosted PBX to cater for the WFH culture being developed by COVID-19

ByEnrico Leigh

COVID-19 has brought tremendous pressure on everyone in every aspect of life, emotional, social, physical and financial but it has also paved the way for a quick uptake of employees working from home, even for companies that have been hesitant to adopt this new revolutionised way of working that the increase in digital resources has been the driving force of over the last few years.

The new Work-from-Home (WFH) ideology has been proven in many studies to see an increased productivity, employee happiness and health, employee retention and turnover for companies. But, with this new method of working which has been forced upon many companies due to the current socio-economic climate surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are needing to jump leaps and bounds in order to cater for the new demands from their governments through imposed regulations and also from their employees amidst the panic and fear around the outbreak.

The changes require quick adjustments to the way business is done for the forseeable future, including moving face-to-face meetings to video conferencing software and giving users mobility where they previously had a static, office-based role. The investment therefore needs to be made in the relevant tools where they are not available such as using laptops and also moving from a fixed telephone to a more flexbile communication solution. A great tool that is perfect for this requirement is the Hosted PBX solution which provides users with multiple ways to to communicate using multiple device options.

With a hosted telephony solution, users are able to connect to their office telephone system from anywhere in the world utilising a SIP phone which can connect to any internet router, or alternatively, utilising the desktop of mobile apps that come with the majority of hosted solutions out on the market, making it possible to give users the freedom to communicate freely but giving businesses the ability to still manage user’s productivity from wherever they are. This type of solution works for all office spaces, from a basic office set up to a call center-type requirement, each solution having its own features and benefits to suit the application.

The benefit of a hosted solution is not only the freedom for employees and the management that employers get, it carries a host of benefits that improves productivity and reduces some of the risks associated with a hardware-based PBX system, including:

  • Cloud hosted equipment
    With the traditional hardware PBX, there was an array of things that could go wrong and when something went wrong it usually took quite a long time to repair. With a hosted PBX solution the hardware that is used is much more powerful than the standard PBX and carries with it additional security and redundancies, all of which are managed and maintained by the service provider.

  • Quick Deployment
    With a hosted PBX solution, it is a lot simpler to add and remove users as the PBX doesn’t require any programming. With hosted solutions a user can be set up and a hosted software or SIP phone provisioned remotely with little effort from either the business or the service provider, this makes it easy to scale your users up or down.

  • Unified communications
    With some of these solutions, users can streamline voice and video calling by doing both from one piece of software, making it easier to maintain team communication and even hold business meetings from a single software that carries a single license per user rather than purchasing multiple solutions. 

 

  • Cost reductions
    The benefits of a VoIP solution are vast and one that can not be overlooked is that with up to 50% savings, a hosted PBX solution will definitely help in the plight businesses have to stay afloat in the midst of the current pandemic.

A hosted PBX solution is only one of the various tools that businesses can put to good use during this time and in the future as their business dynamic molds to the changes that current circumstances and changing employee requirements are bringing about.