Making the proper PBX choice

Every business needs a phone system to operate optimally and communicate effectively with each other and their customers, however with the abundance of PBX Phone System options available, choosing a suitable Cloud PBX provider can seem complicated and somewhat overwhelming, especially as a South African business.

To help simplify your decision, we at DSL Telecom through our extensive first-hand Cloud PBX System experience, have gathered up what we consider to be the leading Cloud PBX competitors in the South African professional marketplace and delved into what sets them apart with some insightful PBX comparisons.

But first, let's take a look at what factors you'd want to to consider when comparing Cloud PBX Systems as well as some of the exciting Phone System features.

4 Crucial factors to consider when comparing Cloud PBX Systems

Here are 4 factors to consider when selecting your Cloud Phone System and comparing Cloud PBX comparisons.

#1 Will the Cloud PBX Solution support your business needs?

When selecting a Cloud PBX provider, you should be aware of all your business needs, i.e. number of lines, number of all employees in all offices, location of all employees, broadband specifications, local/long distance needs, conference calling, call volumes and so forth. In knowing these, you'll be able to select a provider who has the appropriate tools and capacity for your business. Another area that should be addressed is accessibility and technical support.

#2 What about sufficient bandwidth?

Since adequate bandwidth is critical to Cloud PBX systems in order to carry both voice traffic and other data, you'll require sizeable bandwidth for your PBX system. Therefore, the size and data requirement of your company dictates how much bandwidth will be required to adequately run a Cloud PBX service. Your company's exact bandwidth requirements depend directly on your call volume, codec, your packets per second capability, and your total packet size over the WAN. Once this information is accounted for, you'll be able to calculate an approximation of the bandwidth needed.

#3 User training

When choosing your business's ideal PBX Phone System, it's important to choose a Cloud PBX Solution that offers hands-on employee training during the initial installation right through to the training of new employees if required. With this, users will benefit from system proficiency, which ultimately leads to a better utilisation of the system, features, and functions.

#4 Scalability and flexibility

As your business grows larger or smaller, it's imperative that you choose a Cloud Phone System that's designed to easily scale users up and down as your business requires. In addition, you should look for a Cloud PBX that offers the optimum amount of flexibility within their service. Aside from support and training, users should be sure that the provider’s service is able to apply to employees that are both in and out of the office.

All the features you need to grow your business

One of the biggest selling points of Cloud PBX Systems is the availability of advanced features which are most often advertised prominently by PBX Competitors hoping to attract new clients. Since PBX features are provided as a service, there is no equipment, installation or maintenance required for any of these advanced PBX features.

Call Routing

Call routing is a call management feature that queues and distributes inbound calls to a team of agents. It is a feature commonly used in call centres to manage a high volume of incoming calls.

Automated Attendant

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a telephony menu system that enables the dial pad for identification, segmentation and routing of calls.

Music On Hold

Music on hold (MOH) is the business practice of playing recorded music to fill the silence that would be heard by telephone callers who have been placed on hold.

Call Pickup

Call Pickup feature allows users in the same pickup group to pick up no-answering calls of other extensions without running to the ringing phones.

Conference Rooms

By dialing the conference extension number, Cloud Phone System users will be allowed to join a conference room with other specified users.

Call Recording

Call recording is an automatic system that records all your calls. so you don't have to lift another finger for it to begin working, as it is enabled by default.

Call Detail Record

A call detail record (CDR) is a data record produced by a phone extension containing various attributes of the call, such as time, duration, completion status, source number, and destination number.

Holiday Hours

This feature keeps your customers informed about changes in your business hours during the holidays.

Ring Groups

Ring groups allow members to take turns answering calls. Calls could ring all members of the team until someone answers or you could ring members one at a time, in a random order.

Here's an in-depth PBX comparison into our best picks for Cloud PBX Systems for South African Businesses:

Customisable phone solutions for businesses - Pros:

- Locally developed platform based on open source technology

- Cloud platform

- Prepaid or postpaid billing

- 30+ features to monitor and manage your users and agent

-Mobile-ready, web-based technology + up to 3 devices per extension

-Multiple plans to meet your business requirements

Cons:

Limited range of devices compatible with MS Teams

Native video compatibilities not available
6 month data retention

No Unified Comms application suite

3CX PBX is an open-platform, cloud business phone system - Pros:

- Self host with popular cloud providers offering

- Standard Linux VPS. (Google Cloud, Amazon Lightsail, Microsoft Azure & more)

- Easily move your PBX between cloud providers with

- inbuilt backup & restore

- Pay a low monthly fee per PBX rather than an inflated price per extension.

- No long-term contracts

- Save on monthly call costs using SIP trunks

Cons:

The set up can seem a little daunting, especially if you plan to take it on internally.

Limited integration options with other applications.

Requires a video call feature.

Vox Verto Supreme is an all-inclusive cloud-based cloud PBX-Pros:

- Full feature set at a single per user price

- Pure IP Centrex solution allowing customers to benefit from competitive voice rates

- Scalable and flexible - pay per use

- Flexible contract terms available

- PBX features such as voicemail, conferencing, music on hold, automated attendant and automatic call distribution included with the option to add more

- Excellent SLA agreements are mandatory at a low cost per user to ensure excellent service and uptime

Cons:

- Limited features included as standard

- SLA packages are not included but mandatory.

Vox Verto Supreme is an all-inclusive cloud-based cloud PBX-Pros:

- Full feature set at a single per user price

- Pure IP Centrex solution allowing customers to benefit from competitive voice rates

- Scalable and flexible - pay per use

- Flexible contract terms available

- PBX features such as voicemail, conferencing, music on hold, automated attendant and automatic call distribution included with the option to add more

- Excellent SLA agreements are mandatory at a low cost per user to ensure excellent service and uptime

Cons:

Limited features included as standard

SLA packages are not included but mandatory.

Our top pick for South African businesses

If we take a closer look at all the above Cloud PBX competitors, it can't be argued that the DSL Telecom Cloud PBX system offers truly outstanding value, promising to reduce costs, connect seamlessly, and get more done - even when on the go. In today's business climate, agility, flexibility and great value are all massive factors to consider as competitive advantages. DSL Telecom' Cloud Phone System really does tick all the boxes.

To learn more about how this incredible game-changing Cloud Phone System can transform your business, head over to this website: www.pbxcapetown.co.za

Bye for now, chat again soon 👍 www.pbxcapetown.co.za

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DSL Telecom - Blog #salesforce software

The DSL Telecom Cloud PBX merges voice and data into an all-in-one platform with the all-new Salesforce integration

Easily Unfold Customer Insights In Salesforce During Your Calls

Call customers with just a click

Log all your calls automatically

Know who is calling you with live call pop ups

Easily manage your customers

Interested in integrating your Salesforce CRM & DSL Telecom Cloud PBX?

Everything a modern South African business should consider when comparing Cloud PBX Phone Systems

Call Routing

Automated Attendant

Music On Hold

Call Pickup

Conference Rooms

Call Recording

Call Detail Record

Holiday Hours

Ring Groups