How Virtual PBX Can Save You Some Green While Going Greener

I don't know about you, but I have always found the terminology around telephone systems a little complex and unnecessarily confusing and I come from an IT background. PBX, POTS, PSTN, Trunk Lines. What does all that mean? Wikipedia can help you decipher some of it. Our recent article, Unified Communications Options for Nonprofits can too.

Today, I want to talk about one of those technologies that I think could actually be a windfall for small and very small (1-2 people) organizations; the virtual PBX. Don't get scared off by the name. I'll try my best to explain it in plain English.

What is a virtual PBX?

Before defining virtual PBX, let me just explain what PBX is. It stands for private branch exchange and is basically a private phone system you might have in an office, company, or business. It's the type of system many of our organizations probably have already, where you have multiple extensions and can transfer, leave voicemail, and use call forwarding.

All PBXs connect the internal telephones of an organization and also connect your phones to the rest of the world, the PSTN (public switched telephone network). Traditional PBX systems are pieces of hardware that sit in your office.

A virtual PBX system (also called IP-PBX) delivers your calling features as a service over the Internet and can provide many (and sometimes more) of the same services you may be accustomed to at your office, but delivers those services over an Internet connection. Why should your nonprofit care? vPBX systems can provide money savings, convenience, and are helping organizations green their technologies. For example: 

Green benefits

If this is all run as software on a centralized server this means no additional hardware is added to your office your office. No hardware means no upfront costs, less space required, and more flexibility for you and your staff. You'll still need some regular phones, cell phones, or headset/handsets, but since most offices already have phones, you'll save money and the environment by using what you've already got.

• No hardware means there are no additional toxic manufacturing and disposal processes, no resources needed to build it, no energy to run it.
• Since virtual PBX allows staff to call out and recieve calls from their office or just about anywhere else, they don't physically need to be in the office to work eeffectively, freeing up office space and the environmental footprint of maintaining one.
• Many systems can recieve fax messages and deliver them digitally to your email, thereby reducing printed faxes, toner expenses, and overall printer use.

Why is this good for a nonprofit organization?

1. As we mentioned, you won't typically need to buy or install PBX equipment aside from having the phones you're already using (whether desktop handsets, cell phones, headsets, or traditional home phones). You don't have to purchase IP phones, but some services may require you to purchase a router to receive, forward, and manage calls.
2. Typically there is little to no down-time when setting up a vPBX service.
3. You can save hard-raised dollars because service is usually cheaper than traditional PBX services (often about $10 a month) and there is no need to hire a contractor to fix problems. You might also be able to save on a staffing a receptionist to field calls.
4. Auto-Attendants can make a very small office seem larger and more professional since this is the feature that answers the phone and allows users to make selections to get routed to the right person. Your callers don't need to know that you are just one or two people answering all of the calls. You can also use these features to route callers to hear different automated messages, like your address, fax number, or website. This can save staff time by automating this frequently-requested information for callers.
5. Commonly, these systems will receive faxes and send them as digital files to your email.
6. Most systems are able to convert voicemail to email.
7. All systems should have the ability to call transfer: "With most online PBX systems you can transfer calls to any phone, not just other phones in your system" (sometimes including cell phones).
8. You can control every aspect of the virtual PBX service, from setting up extensions to listening to messages, by logging into an online interface via the web. This is an extremely crucial feature and is what makes virtual PBX services convenient, easy to maintain, and easily accessible.
9. Capabilities are not limited to the hardware purchased and therefore, you can more easily change your service and service provider based on your needs.

PBX Compare is a great website with an apples-to-apples comparison of the top providers of hosted PBX systems. They also explain several of the most common features and provide tips for selecting the service that is right for you. We also suggest you check out BetterWorld Telecom. They have a genuine commitment to the environment and offer a free, no-commitment audit of your systems to help you plan the pieces that fit your needs and your budget.