Andy Rankin

My company, Viget Labs, is in the process of having new space built out. By September we’ll be moved over to the new space. I’ve been scrambling over the past several weeks to get our essential needs squared away. One of the toughest thing is picking the right phone system.

The system we’re using in our current space, TalkSwitch, is just not big enough to handle our growth. Early on I ruled out a traditional PBX solution - the costs and features just can’t compare to the many virtual PBX offerings out there.

Having it narrowed down to some kind of VoIP, virtual PBX solution I’m now faced with a premise-based option (hardware sitting in our office) versus a hosted option. The hosted guys will tell you that they’re a better choice because you avoid the large up-front hardware costs and at the same time avoid the hassle of managing a PBX. The premise-based guys, especially the ones selling something based on the Astrix platform, can show you how the costs even out after only a year or two and even sooner depending on you usage patterns.

The hosted solutions are very tempting because they seem simple to get up and running. The pricing also seems simple and predictable - you generally pay a flat monthly fee per user. However, it’s not quite that simple. You may have to also pay a setup fee for each line. Some places make you buy the phones from them (at not-so-great prices) and/or pay them to configure the phones. There will be upfront costs if you don’t already have the right kind of router. If you don’t have a fancy power-over-ethernet switch then you’ll be faced with the uncool scenario of needing a power brick for each phone - yuck.

I could go on and on, but it’s been painful enough already. At this point I think it will be a hosted solution that we go with - now I just need to figure out which one.