When choosing office phone systems, business owners often find themselves lost on what will work best for them. With so many options on the market these days (and providers promoting so many different services) it can easily become a very complicated choice. Plus, it also requires tons of research that most professionals don’t have the time to do.
If you’re in that boat, you’ve come to the right place! We can narrow it down to two of the top choices for office phone systems in the industry right now. There are a few key differences between good old-fashioned landlines and hosted phone systems, and based on these differences, you can determine which would work best for your business. So, without further ado, let’s talk about hosted phones vs. traditional landlines.
Hosted vs Landline: What makes them different?
A traditional landline phone system uses a metal wire or optical fiber to transmit data and complete calls, so your voice travels along a physical line to connect with the other caller. A hosted phone system, on the other hand, works by connecting your calls through an internet connection. The software that connects your calls is hosted on a server (aka “in the cloud”) by the service provider.
While landlines need to be connected in a specific physical location to work, hosted phone systems can run on any internet-connected device, and you can make and receive calls anywhere at any time. Furthermore, hosted phones need barely any equipment to function, making them remarkably more flexible than landlines.
What Features Should I Look for in Office Phone Systems?
An office phone system is an important tool for any business’s day-to-day operations. The features that come with your phone system will become an important part of how you and your team communicate. Each business has different communication needs, but here are a few features that are important for office phone systems to have no matter your industry:
- Scalability: A scalable phone system can meet your business’s changing needs, including adding or removing phone lines as needed.
- Security: Strong security features are a must to protect sensitive business information and prevent unauthorized access.
- Call management: Features like call forwarding, call transfer, call waiting, and voicemail help manage incoming calls effectively.
- Conference calling: Conference calling allows multiple people to participate in one phone call, which is essential for businesses with remote employees or multiple locations.
These features also mark a difference between landlines and hosted phone systems! Landlines hardly ever have any of these features. Most hosted phone systems have these features already built-in, if not many more. Although landlines can still be a good option for businesses that don’t rely on phone systems as much, we can’t deny that hosted phones win on the features front.
What Are the Benefits of Hosted Office Phone Systems?
Now that we’ve established that hosted phone systems might be a better option, let’s talk about some of the benefits that come with hosted office phone systems:
- More Affordable. This might come as a surprise, but hosted phones are cheaper than landlines in the long run. You save on expensive equipment and installations and pay monthly fees without any hidden costs.
- Flexible. Because they connect your calls using an internet connection, you can use a hosted phone system on any device. You can even take it on the run, making it more reliable than traditional phones.
- Personalized. When opting for a hosted phone system, you can choose the features you want to add based on your business’s needs!
- Reliable. Most hosted phones offer a high percentage of uptime. Uptime is the time that your phone system is up and running! For high quality service providers that would be 99.99% of the time, meaning you can always rely on them.
All in all, we can confidently say that a hosted phone system is an awesome choice when choosing office phone systems.
Magic Apple Can Solve All Your Communication Needs!
Over here at Magic Apple, we are phone system experts. We have superior cloud-based phone systems and superior customer service. Plus, we have a team of experts that can match any business with their perfect phone system partner. What are you waiting for? Call us today and switch to the best phone services in the business.
