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Your Hosted PBX Providers' Audio Conferencing Option: Should you use it?

Audio conferencing today has become a very common feature. Once available only to larger businesses, this service—which was once costly—can now be enjoyed by even the smallest businesses on the tightest budget.

Some larger businesses that deploy on-premises IP PBX systems deploy and manage their own audio conferences in-house. This usually requires an additional piece of hardware that interfaces with the IP PBX. However, hosted PBX offerings are becoming more common, especially for smaller businesses. Although it is not for everybody, the hosted PBX does offer several major advantages. There is no up-front capital expenditure required for a hosted PBX, and there is no hardware to install or maintain. Companies that lack internal technical personnel with telecommunications skill can still enjoy sophisticated telecom features like audio conferencing, by engaging a hosted PBX.

Hosted PBX

A hosted PBX service will offer a wide variety of features and functions, including many of the same functions that are available only on the most modern, top-of-the-line PBXes. As a result, it is often possible to enjoy many more features through a hosted service than would be possible with an on-premises solution, especially if the purchaser is on a budget.

One of the most common features of hosted PBX is audio conferencing. Although it is also available through other third-party audio conferencing services such as Skype or SightSpeed, the audio conferencing option made available by your hosted PBX provider may well prove to be the best option. The most obvious advantage of using the hosted PBX provider's audio conferencing option of course, is simplicity, and the advantage of having a single point of contact for multiple needs. A second advantage is likely to be price. If you are already paying for the hosted PBX, the incremental cost for using audio conferencing from the same provider is probably going to be less than using a second provider. However, before selecting a hosted PBX provider, make sure that it is one that provides this option, and furthermore, that the provider offers all of the audio conferencing features that you will require; otherwise, you may find yourself using two providers after all and spending more money than necessary.

The hosted PBX provider's audio conferencing service may include all of the standard features and extras you may need, but consider the need for features like an auto-attendant that announces a participant's presence in the conference, a central call-in number, scheduling, and the ability to do ad-hoc conferences without pre-scheduling. Other features such as call recording, playback, and "listen only" status will also prove to be useful for larger conferences.

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