Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets & Needs

White Paper

By Peter Bernstein, Senior Editor, TMC

Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets and Needs 2 ©TelePacific Communications

If you are a small to medium business (SMB) here a few things you know about being competitive in the real-time driven “Age of Acceleration”— where the only constants are change the speed at which it is increasing.

1. You need high performance and fully-optimized multiple media communications, customer

interaction and collaboration tools to work seamlessly to create and sustain business

advantage.

2. It is likely your current telephone systems are old, expensive to keep up-to-date and not

integrated with Internet, unified communications and mobility capabilities.

3. Budgets are tight and you would like to avoid technology upgrade sticker shock.

4. Your IT expertise is limited and stretched to the limit.

What you may not know but need to consider is that a hosted PBX solution can give you the

features and functionality enjoyed by large enterprises. It can do so economically while giving

you the control and customization you desire without you or staff keeping constant vigil on costs

and capabilities.

This paper is designed to give you the information needed to consider a hosted PBX solution as

a great option to provide the capabilities, flexibility, performance and security you need, based

on a trusted business relationship, that fits your budget now and going forward.

What will be highlighted are:

• What hosted PBX solutions are and how they work.

• The benefits hosted PBX solutions provide.

• The Hosted PBX solution from TelePacific. One that lets them handle the hard stuff of managing and maintaining a next generation communications capability leaving you to concentrate on your business yet still tailor your communications to be optimized for a rapidly changing world.

A Hosted PBX: What it is and how it worksPut simply, as the name implies, hosted PBX solutions take the telephone equipment you currently own, and puts everything but the phones in the cloud.

Features and functionality are delivered as a service. They leverage the business advantages of buying a service as opposed to owning equipment. You can employ the latest technology without the worry or time to be state-of-the-art and enjoy the benefits of converged, secure, high-performance data networking. Like a large enterprise, your organization can take full advantage of such leading edge capabilities as: voice over IP (VoIP), unified communications (UC), high-speed Internet and data networking, soft phones for personal devices, mobile and cloud-based business apps, social media, and quality experiences using video conferencing and streamed video as well.

Hosted PBX solutions are managed by a trusted third-party. Their job is to provide all of the above mentioned quality services and features, and interoperability with the other

Put simply, as the name

implies, hosted PBX solutions

take the telephone equipment

you currently own, and puts

everything but the phones in

the cloud.

Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets and Needs 3 ©TelePacific Communications

technologies you use to run your business. They do so based on the concepts of “pay-as-you-go” (communications functionality as a service) and “pay-as-you-grow.” They can scale to meet your needs as and when you need them in reaction to, or proactively in response to changing business imperatives.

Hosted PBX solutions because they are cloud-based are not just about moving your CapEx to OpEx on a constant and consistent basis. They are also about the elimination of hardware and software obsolescence, time-consuming and costly adds moves and changes, and occupying your time and/or that of your support staff on things best left to others with expertise — off-loading significant costs not just in the first instance, but over time.

As noted, you need to know that hosted PBX solutions should integrate seamlessly with other technologies, and that the business case is demonstrable in terms of hard dollar savings, and softer dollar contributions arising from business process optimization/more efficient workflow, and the ability of your people to have the right tools at the right time to meet customer needs and create differentiated competitive advantage.

They enable your company to be fast to market and fast in the market. This is particularly crucial given that responsiveness in today’s world is the way to capture and keep customers.

A look at the difference between legacy approaches and a hosted solution tells you what you need to know about hosted solutions work from a technology perspective.

Hosted PBXTraditional Environment

RouterHosted VoIP

Staff

Local

Long Distance

Data WAN

Internet

Staff

PBX

Router

Router

RouterA traditional environment requires an on-premises PBX and discreet feeds for incoming traffic. Hosted PBX simplifies hardware (and support staff ) by integrating traffic and performing PBX functions in the cloud.

Data WAN

Internet

Hosted PBX solutions…are not

just about moving your CapEx

to OpEx…they are also about

the elimination of hardware

and software obsolescence,

time-consuming and costly

adds moves and changes, and

occupying your time and/or that

of your support staff on things

best left to others with expertise.

Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets and Needs 4 ©TelePacific Communications

PBX solutions hosted in the cloud simplify the oversight of hardware, and cut down the need for support staff. A well-designed and operated hosted PBX solution gives you the ability to select which users have access to what features, one administrator one dashboard to manage the system from anywhere, and individual users the ability to integrate their mobile devices and change various parameters to meet where they are, and what they need. As TelePacific says, “Make work an activity, not a place.”

Benefits of a hosted PBX solution

As stated, the benefits of hosted PBX solutions are demonstrable in hard dollars. Plus, softer benefits are easily quantifiable. And, an overall evaluation stands up favorably in return-on-investment (ROI) or total cost of ownership (TCO) analyses.

Major benefits as to why best in breed hosted PBX solutions are gaining popularity with SMBs include:

• Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)

• Predictable operating expense

• Quick, turnkey setup

• The ability to measure voice quality so it provides a compelling user experience

• Eliminate risk of technology obsolescence and expensive maintenance costs

The elimination of the possibility of hardware and software obsolescence, and associated maintenance costs, cannot be over-emphasized. This includes not just state-of-the-art basic communications features and functionality but also integration with other communications, computing and collaboration tools that can make your organization more efficient and your people and processes more effective.

Consideration: Questions to ask

In considering the best way for your organization to get the best next generation communications solution with the price/performance that makes sense for your unique requirements (operational and competitive), you need to evaluate not only the costs and benefits of a alternatives such as a new premises-based solution versus a hosted PBX one, but also understand that not all hosted solutions are the same.

In fact, when it comes to hosted there are several things to ask any provider you should be evaluating:

Quality of Service (QoS): What is the quality of service and associated service level agreements (SLAs) that create superior quality of experience (QoE)? Voice and video, because they are real-time, need the highest quality links and routing. Up-time is vital and giving priority so that packets get to their destinations on time in the right order cannot be compromised. This can be a problem with solutions that are accessed via the pubic Internet which rightfully is called, “best effort.”

You need to evaluate not only

the costs and benefits of a

alternatives such as a new

premises-based solution versus

a hosted PBX one, but also

understand that not all hosted

solutions are the same.

Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets and Needs 5 ©TelePacific Communications

Accessibility and Extensibility: Can you and your employees, partners and even customers access the network when, where and how they need it?

Feature and Functionality: Are you getting and paying for all of the functionality you require?

Security: What kinds of capabilities are in place to assure that all communications are secure?

Control: Can you create, deploy and enforce capabilities according to your policies and rules?

Interoperability and Integration: How well does the solution work with other solutions?

Ease of Use: How easy is it for your support people but end users to change parameters?

Support and Reputation: How big, available and experienced is the service providers support staff? How have they performed in terms of things like meantime-to-restoration, cutover to backup in disaster recovery efforts, etc.?

TelePacific’s Hosted PBX Solution: fully-featured, quality experiences when and where they countIf you are an SMB enterprise headquartered in California, Nevada, and Texas with 10 or more employees, TelePacific is a service provider who offers hosted solutions that can make a real difference in your business because of their tailored offerings for companies of your size and needs, and their ability to seamless connect you nationwide as well. They provide a great example of what you should be looking for in a best of breed hosted PBX solution provider.

The company boasts the largest owned and operated broadband network footprint in region in the aforementioned states. Interconnection agreements with best in class partners enable seamless private networking across the U.S. and around the world. Customers get one point of contact, i.e., more responsiveness and less hassle.

In terms of the criteria above, TelePacific’s Hosted PBX service meets or exceeds them all. It starts with the service model and features supported.

Service and Features

The service includes VoIP handsets from Polycom, the leading provider of IP handsets used with Hosted PBX solutions. These support a robust suite of IP-PBX features, mobile applications, and more. The customer’s end users are each assigned a “seat” that may have a ten digit telephone number associated with it, or just an extension on the system. With each seat, the individual user is also provided with a VoIP desktop phone.

Each seat carries with it a monthly recurring charge (MRC) and pricing per seat reflects the functionality available to that end user. A non-recurring charge also applies for each seat. All inbound and outbound local calls are included in the cost of the seat. Long Distance (LD) usage will be billed separately.

The company boasts the

largest owned and operated

broadband network footprint in

region in the aforementioned

states. Interconnection

agreements with best in class

partners enable seamless

private networking across the

U.S. and around the world.

Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets and Needs 6 ©TelePacific Communications

A choice of three unique seat types with associated features is available for each user:

Basic Seat – a limited feature set typically used for lobby phones, break rooms, or receptionist waiting areas. Basic features include: local telephone numbers, caller ID and call Logs.

Advanced Seat – a full feature set that is appropriate for the average use. Advanced features include: call forward, call transfer, three-way Calling and Voicemail to Email.

Executive Seat – Executive seats provide the most robust feature set available. Executive features include: Do Not Disturb, Find Me, Push to Talk and Speed Dial.

Optional a-la-carte features such as audio conferencing, toll free numbers, fax to email, and a PC-based Receptionist Dashboard are also available.

The service is hosted on TelePacific’s private network to assure a superior customer experience. All CPE associated with the offer is installed, maintained and managed by TelePacific, and self-management portals allow end-users and administrators to make changes on the fly and customize features to their liking. Other important capabilities include:

• Built-incallcenter(ACD)capabilityforawiderangeofofficesizes.

• Find-me-follow-mefeaturesmeanemployeescanbereachedanytime,anywhere.

• Soft-phoneclientforlaptopsandmobilephones

• SelfServicePortals:

– Group Administrator Portal : Gives direct control over the system from anywhere to enable management of day-to-day changes to service configuration, e.g., virtually eliminated the need for external support for moves and changes.

– End User Portal: Allows users to program their phone, enable features, and choose where calls go (e.g. voicemail, auto-attendant, mobile phone, etc.

The service is hosted on

TelePacific’s private network

to assure a superior customer

experience. All CPE associated

with the offer is installed,

maintained and managed

by TelePacific, and self-

management portals allow

end-users and administrators

to make changes on the fly and

customize features to their liking.

Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets and Needs 7 ©TelePacific Communications

• Anywherecloudservicesaccess

• Geo-redundantarchitecture

• Advancedcallrouting

• Web-basedfeaturemanagement

• FaultTolerantInfrastructure

• Theabilitytoscalebandwidthfrom1Mbpsto100Mbpsin1Mbpsand10Mbpsincrements so you have precisely the bandwidth you need to optimize service delivery when you need it

As part of the service, to ensure voice call quality, TelePacific conducts a pre-sale site survey and work with its customers to certify that their Local Area Network (LAN) is IP voice quality ready (compliant to TelePacific’s IP standards) prior to installing Hosted PBX Service.

TelePacific’s standard offer is to replace an existing customer’s voice-supporting LAN networking switches with TelePacific-specified Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches. TelePacific will provide customers with 24 port, or 48 port switch options depending on the needs of the customer. Each PoE switch will carry an MRC and a NRC. The service also requires that customers purchase Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) from TelePacific.

Along with the five nine’s reliability and convenience of the web, the ACD, hosted mobility and UC capabilities are key to business optimization, enabling the virtualization of work and responsiveness to internal as well as external needs.

Mobile features have been mentioned, but to recap they include: the find me and follow me anywhere, remote access and smart numbering capabilities. The UC features are accessible on a single resource to seamlessly connect people, information and teams. These include: Instant Messaging; video conferencing; control over features like call forwarding, do not disturb; click-to-dial; presence; integrated voice and text messaging; and the soft-phone client for PCs and personal devices.

Finally the ACD capabilities should not be over-looked. While you may currently not have a traditional call center, having such capabilities as automated-attendant and advanced call routing when augmented with enhancements to your online presence are what make your organization appear to the outside world like a large enterprise.

Hosted PBX…now is the time

The speed of business is real-time and multimedia. Reality is that your legacy communications need to be upgraded or soon will be. However, based on what you have and what you know you need, the challenge is how to get from where you are to where you must be quickly and with a solution that will grow with you without causing financial and user disruption.

Hosted PBX solutions provide the functionality you need to compete today. They are, based on a business model that makes dollars and sense for SMBs. They are future ready, and when you select wisely, give you the access to expertise and support that allows you to concentrate on your business as well as enjoy peace of mind.

While you may currently not

have a traditional call center,

having such capabilities as

automated-attendant and

advanced call routing when

augmented with enhancements

to your online presence are

what make your organization

appear to the outside world like

a large enterprise.

Hosted PBX Solutions: Large Enterprise Capabilities that Fit SMB Budgets and Needs 8 ©TelePacific Communications

With the average seat for a new premises-based solution costing roughly $1,000 up front, and with significant maintenance charges to follow, now is the time to have a hosted PBX provider like TelePacfic evaluate your requirements, and show you how you can have the capabilities of larger entities now and going forward with a solution that fits your operational and financial needs. You now know the questions to ask. The answers should help you move at the speed of the Age of Acceleration and create the compelling and sustainable business advantage a next generation communications solution can enable.