What is a PBX?

Spending hours on hold trying to reach someone can drive anyone crazy. Poor service like this is an effective way to send potential customers straight to your competitors. The answer? A phone system. Let's explore how a phone system works and how it makes businesses more efficient.

Handling incoming calls

A phone system is essential for distributing and managing calls within a business. Its primary function is to answer incoming calls. Callers can either select an option to be transferred, or the system can ring multiple internal phones until someone picks up. This ensures no calls are missed and that available staff handle them quickly and efficiently.

More than just answering calls

By offering different routing options, a phone system ensures every call receives the attention it needs and is handled professionally. A good phone system does more than passively receive calls. It coordinates communication flow across the business to optimize efficiency and ensure all calls are handled in a structured way.

A critical part of business communication

With multiple call management features (voicemail, queue systems, and automatic routing), a phone system can adapt to an organization's specific needs and boost productivity. The system's ability to quickly route incoming calls to the right recipient is critical for maintaining smooth communication with customers and partners. This makes the phone system a central part of the company's communication infrastructure. With a phone system in place, businesses also avoid automated answering machines that can frustrate customers and partners.

Supporting remote work

Since the pandemic, working from home has become standard in many industries. Having your workforce distributed across different locations several days a week comes with challenges. This new, more flexible work environment makes a phone system even more important than before. Employees in different locations need to be connected quickly and efficiently with potential and existing customers. Otherwise, important business opportunities could be lost.

From traditional operators to the cloud

The phone system's history begins as an automation of manual switchboards. Before that, all call transfers were handled by operators (predominantly women lined up with phones in hand and later headsets, as seen in countless newsreels and old photographs).

Analog systems are installed in an office with fixed lines to all connected phones. They're expensive, complicated to maintain, and generally not a smart choice for modern work life. The decline of fixed-line phones also means analog systems will soon disappear entirely from offices across the country.

A digital phone system is something of a hybrid between an analog (old) system and a cloud-based (modern) system. Simply put, it converts a fixed phone system into a modern cloud-based version with more features and lower costs. This means phone lines can be added without requiring new cables.

Cloud-based systems

A cloud-based business phone system is a considerably more flexible option than other variants. The cloud's capacity is virtually limitless, enabling the phone system to adapt to a company's specific needs. When additional capacity is needed, a cloud system can easily be adjusted to meet changing requirements.

With a cloud system, employees can also make calls, answer, and forward messages remotely. They can easily answer calls outside the office using a smartphone and the accompanying app.

The cloud offers an adaptable and scalable phone system. It enables the use of all types of devices and smooth integration with the company's CRM.

Employees can also communicate in whatever way works best. Not just by phone, but also through chat, messaging, and video calls. Additionally, services like voicemail and call tracking can be customized to business needs. The same applies to integrations with IT, ERP systems, and the company's website.

As an added bonus, cloud-based systems are typically much cheaper than their predecessors. And they work just as well for large corporations as they do for small family businesses.

Telia's phone systems

We offer several different business phone systems. Regardless of industry or company size, a modern phone system can significantly improve operations.

Check out Smart Connect, our new mobile phone system. Smart Connect is an affordable all-in-one system. It's as easy to get started with as it is packed with smart features. And the price? Just SEK 49 per user.