Traditional on premise analog systems are currently losing a lot of ground to Hosted Solutions because businesses today can get a full hosted solution for a fraction of the cost of a traditional analog system. Not only is there substantial cost savings, but hosted solutions generally offer a wealth of features never offered or not even possible with traditional systems.
Here we will review some of the positives and negatives of traditional and a hosted system.
Traditional Phone Systems
PROS of Traditional Phone Service
- Tried Tested & True
- Reliable lines
- Reliable phones
- Works during power outages
- Does not rely on your internet connection
CONS of Traditional Phone Service
- Very expensive upfront costs
- Aging technology needs to be replaced
- Making changes is complicated
- New advanced features cost extra
- Expensive support & Maintenance contracts
- You are limited to the number of phone lines
- Getting phone numbers in other cities is not possible
- Direct Numbers Require a T1/PRI
- Long Distance Costs are expensive
- High cost to connect different offices together
- Redundancy is expensive or not possible
Hosted Phone Systems
PROS of Hosted Phone Service
- Not tied to brick and mortar locations
- Linking multiple offices together is a snap
- Low upfront cost
- Free Software Updates
- Quickly deploy anywhere
- Buy just the phones you need right now
- Very low international rates
- You'll never have to replace your phone system
- Free advanced calling features
- New features being added all the time
- Support for mobile employees
- Direct numbers from multiple cities
- Direct numbers from other countries
CONS of Hosted Phone Service
- Relies on a good quality stable internet connection
- Relies on a good quality onsite network, (better equipment, better results)
- Susceptible to quality issues more often than on analog lines
- Phones need to be on a good quality VoIP network, most networks are not properly configured for VoIP by default
- Support is often over the phone support not live
- Defective phones under warranty are often repaired vs replaced
- More phones require more bandwidth
- Training is often over the phone or internet
