Hosted PBX – Determining the Competencies of a Service Provider

As a business owner you would know how important communication is in any business and most probably you are ia constant hunt for a technology and a company that will provide you better services whilst still keeping the cost down. If so, you might have heard of a hosted PBX system before and given the benefits of its features and cost effective deployment it is really tempting to give a go. However one thing is for sure, with the numerous providers in the market you may now be troubles on which one to give the business to. Here is a quick checklist to determine the competencies of a hosted PBX service provider. First of all your hosted PBX service provider must have a 99.9% up time meaning, the phone system should work all the time and should have a failover mechanism that you should be aware of in case of any difficulties and issues. The Internet Telephony Service provider (ISPT) must have a sophisticated IP network to ensure quality voice call transmission anywhere in the world. This can be best investigated by asking for a quick rundown of their service roadmap. Second, is to determine their readiness, the ISTP should not only provide you with a one size fits all system but rather come up with a particular solution for your specific needs. The solution should consist of innovative features, flexible terms, customized packages and a recommendation on which phone system will suit your business best based on the facts that you’ve given them and not based on what their products are. Third is to know their technology profile, service providers must have their own IP network and asterisk technology to have full control of their business platforms and ensure the continuity of service that they will tender. Coordination and partnership with leading technology providers is also a must since it will suggest that the ISTP is using the latest advancements in the communication field and is aware of the newest trend happening in the market. Fourth is to determine their actual level of competencies, ask the service provider what separates them from other service provider, at some point they should have something that other ISTP do not, otherwise they are an average provider. Ask for each component of the phone system that they provide, like the quality of the IP handsets, their SIP trunk lines, their cloud network, their feature, the audio codec that they support and their calling rates. Lastly is to determine how the ISTP do business, they should be a trust worthy and honest each step of the way. The ISPT must not be skeptical to tell any drawback that their hosted PBX system have after all nothing is perfect. You must be made you aware of every detail that you have to go through during the set up and deployment phase be it a difficulty or another set of charges.