Hosted IP Telephony

There’s now another alternative to the traditional PBX telephone system sitting on the wall in the back office gathering dust. The answer? Don’t have a physical system at all.

With Hosted IP telephony the user will have a pre-programmed IP telephone or some type of device connected via an analogue adaptor that is connected to any available broadband connection. The central system resides in a secure data centre and the user then connects to the functionality of this via internet protocol and can make and receive calls from any available broadband connection in the world assuming that it has adequate quality. To access the features of the system for reporting or programming the user will log onto a web portal using the user’s telephone number (which incidentally can be any type of geographical number and does not need to be changed when you move offices) and a password. The web portal includes features such as the internal phonebook, voicemail, conference call scheduling, call handling. It also has a dial out facility which means that you can click on a contacts record and it automatically dials out from the user’s handset.

Benefits of a hosted solution include a low monthly user cost which covers maintenance, upgrades and seat rental. No more concerns about systems going out of date as hosted technology is constantly evolving with the benefits being passed onto the user as part of the monthly rental. Free calls between any user on the same network regardless of country location. Disaster resiliant as there is no physical equipment other than the handset itself.

Overall, this is a very exciting new development for the telecoms arena which gives more flexibility and userbility in a fast paced and ever changing sector.


Article written by Daniel Bevan of Datasharp Telecom (Chiltern)

www.dstelecom.co.uk
www.ds-telecom.co.uk
www.voipphone-systems.co.uk