We have developed an inexpensive
alternative to the traditional analog PBX system. Our virtual
PBX uses fully functional telephone sets to provide you with
truly digital communications, both inter-office and
intra-office. The PBX telephone sets that we use are programmed
to work with our digital VoIP telephone service, and can be
configured to allow up to four separate lines for each
telephone set. Additionally, indicator lights will allow
employees to see whether up to seven other employees are on
the phone or not.
The beauty of having a virtual PBX
telephone system is that you are not hindered or limited by
geographic location. You can configure your PBX to include
just one physical office or you can have multiple offices
connected as
part of one PBX, making call conferencing, call monitoring and
transferring calls from one office to the other a snap. This
same system can also allow you or your employees
the flexibility of telecommuting, while still having the same
communications and phone accessibility as if you or they were
still physically in the office.
The installation and operation costs for
our virtual PBX are quite reasonable when compared to the
thousands of dollars that most businesses pay for traditional analog PBXs,
the customized cabling required to support the system and the actual
telephone sets themselves. With our PBX system and PBX
telephones there is no need for additional cabling, since they
will use the cabling that you already have in place for your computers’
Internet access. The VoIP business phones cost only $100.00
each, so your installation costs for a standard PBX system
from Douglas Telecom would be the cost of the telephones, plus
shipping and handling.
There are many configurations
that you can choose for your virtual PBX. The simplest
configuration would be to sign up for a few telephone
numbers, which automatically come with voicemail, and route
each telephone number individually to a specific VoIP
telephone, or configure call-hunting features. Each
fully-functional telephone number with voicemail costs $15.00
per month.
If you only need a small number of
actual telephone numbers, but a larger number of
incoming/outgoing phone lines, you can order your telephone
numbers, voicemail lines, and incoming/outgoing call lines
separately. Telephone numbers cost $15.00 per month for local
or $5.00 per month for toll free numbers. Incoming/outgoing
telephone lines cost $15.00 each for the first line configured
to a VoIP telephone, but only $5.00 each per second, third or
fourth line routed to the same VoIP telephone per month. Each
voicemail channel costs $15.00 per month.
Additional PBX functionality can be
added to any configuration, provided
via a web-based interface. Our FlexyTrack CRM module could
also be added to either of these options for additional
functionality and productivity tools. If you require special
configurations for either multi-layered voicemail, customized
call routing or calling group settings, please let us know and
we would be happy to provide you with a customized quote for
your desired configuration.
Small Business PBX Scenario
In a typical small business or small
office / workgroup set up, you may have five employees who use
the telephone as a regular part of their work day. With
a traditional telephone system, you would typically have five
telephone lines, one for each employee, and any overload calls
would receive a busy signal and be lost. We find that with
most businesses, there are certain seasons or months when they
have a higher volume of telephone traffic than at others,
which necessitate the addition of more telephone lines. With a
traditional PBX, there are expenses associated with every time
you add or remove a line, due to the extra cabling and other
related tasks. This always begs the questions as to
whether the lines should be added in the first place, and, if
they are added, if they should be kept permanently or not.
With our virtual PBX, you have the option of simply asking us
to add one or two more lines to your account for a month, two
months or however long you need it, without having to worry
about additional cabling or installation expenses. With an
additional line, your employees will have the option, during
times of high telephone traffic, to put a call on hold in
order to answer another incoming telephone call, and
not lose the extra calls to a busy signal.
The configuration of your telephone
lines could be changed from month to month, and it could be
different from telephone set to telephone set. For example,
you may have an experienced employee who can handle being
assigned three telephone lines at once, however, you would
probably only want to have one telephone line for a new
employee still in training. The number of lines assigned to
each employee can be adjusted as need, from one month to the
next, as telephone traffic rises and falls, or as individual
employees become more adept at handling multiple lines.
Sample Set-Up and Cost Analysis
As mentioned above, each telephone set
can be configured for up to four lines. The first line
configured for a telephone set costs
$15.00 per month, while each additional line on the same
telephone set will cost only $5.00 per month. Dedicated
voicemail lines and dedicated fax lines cost $15.00 per
month each, while secondary fax receiving channels from our electronic
fax service adds only $5.00 per month per channel.
|
If you have... |
Your
one-time equipment cost would be... |
Your
monthly PBX service costs would be...* |
| Five
employees, who need four lines each |
$500.00
for five 4-line business VoIP telephones |
$150.00
for a total of (20) lines |
| Five
employees, who need four lines each, plus one dedicated
voicemail line and one dedicated fax line |
$600.00
for five 4-line business VoIP telephones and one VoIP
router |
$180.00
for a total of (20) lines plus (1) fax line and (1)
voicemail line |
| Five
employees, who need four lines each, plus one dedicated
voicemail line, one dedicated fax line plus two electronic
fax channels |
$600.00
for five 4-line business VoIP telephones and one VoIP
router |
$190.00
for a total of (20) lines plus (1) fax line, (2)
electronic fax channels and (1)
voicemail line |
|
*not
including cost of telephone numbers or long distance usage
charges |
For more information on PBX features,
costs and configurations, please do not hesitate to contact
us.
Assert your right to choose and
activate your first set of VoIP lines
