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What is a PBX?

As your company expands from a startup to a thriving business with employees, you will want to provide phone connectivity to your staff. To do this, you will find yourself researching Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems.

Setting up a PBX is no small task. A company enlists the help of one or more systems administrators with decades of telecom experience. You would also need the physical space to place the PBX system in the office, like a closet or server room.

  1. 1

    Cost Savings

  2. 2

    Virtual Presence

  3. 3

    Auto-Attendant

  4. 4

    Hold Options

  5. 5

    PBX vs PABX

PBX Main Features

An IP PBX system makes use of digital phone signals as opposed to analogue landlines. Updating to an IP phone means businesses can benefit from some more intuitive functions. While traditional PBX systems only have a certain number of internal extensions and outside trunk lines, with an IP business communications system, users can benefit from almost unlimited access in terms of adding extensions and trunks, making it a smarter choice for businesses looking for flexibility and scalability.

Online Portal Management

With a hosted PBX system, businesses and users can administer and edit certain phone functions via an online dashboard. This becomes the central point for users to moderate key functions such as setting up a ring group, establishing new handset extensions and endpoints, creating a call routing path or setting up SIP trunks.

Virtual Presence

A presence feature enables team members to see whether their colleagues are available, on another call or offline, allowing them to deal with inbound calls appropriately.

Auto-Attendant

An auto attendant allows callers to choose from many options so that their call is directed to the appropriate person or department.

Hold options

Hosted PBX users can usually choose and set an audio option for customers on hold. Whether that be the classic Greensleeves or a reel of product promotions, this can be a great way to evoke feelings of calm or to benefit from a captive audience depending on your caller audience.

PBX vs PABX

The term PABX, which stands for private automatic branch exchange, has become somewhat futile. Historically used to differentiate between the automated PBX and the manual switching system counterpart, a PMBX which required a live switchboard operator back in the day, the term PABX is rather void as essentially all modern-day PBX systems are now automated. The acronym, therefore, is now rarely used but is synonymous with the term PBX, referring to the same system.

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