Premise-Based Phone Systems

On-premise phone systems are sometimes referred to as PBX phone systems. PBX stands for Private Branch Exchange, which is a private telephone network with unique extensions for staff members and/or departments, which uses a purchased or leased physical device and is used within a company or organization to make both internal and external phone calls. These systems can be VoIP (voice over IP) or digital. On-premise phone systems have been the traditional best choice for business phone systems for several decades.

With an on-premise phone system, you’ll have a dial tone from a traditional telephone company, cable provider, or SIP trunk provider. SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, is the standard communications internet protocol for voice and video communications for internet telephony, in private Internet Protocol (IP) telephone systems, and in instant messaging over IP networks. The dial tone will come directly into your physical location and connect into the phone system.

With this type of an on-premise system, the you will have a server on site or in a data center, and are responsible for the maintenance, upgrades, and/or expansion of the system. If your company purchases this type of phone system, you will use your own in-house IT professionals or partner with a provider for ongoing support.

A premise-based phone system is ideal for a small or rapidly growing businesses, as this system can help you control overhead costs, since there’s no need to hire a receptionist to answer calls or invest a lot of money upfront for hardware and a complex system requiring an IT team. A PBX system allows you to add multiple departments, even if you have a small team, which helps your company appear larger. As your company grows, you can change your main greeting and the number of departments as your organization changes.