Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX in NJ

• What is Hosted PBX? What is Virtual PBX?
• Why Choose Monmouth Telecom for Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX in NJ?
• Who Should Use a Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX?
• Benefits of Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX
• Features of Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX
• Save Money with Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX
• Complete Accountability
• Higher Reliability
• Unlimited Scalability
• Save On Wiring
• Technical Support
• Why The Cloud Is More Eco-Friendly
• Simplicity of Service
• VoIP Pitfalls to Watch Out For
• Box In The Closet
• Frequently Asked Questions about Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX

What Is Hosted PBX? What Is Virtual PBX?

Virtual PBX and Hosted PBX are synonyms.  A Hosted PBX is a modern, Voice over IP (VoIP), business phone system. The terms "virtual" and "hosted" signify that the business owner no longer has any physical equipment at the premise of the business.  The phone system is provided as a service by a service provider, in the case of Monmouth Telecom, also an Internet Service Provider and a Local Telephone Company.

There is a cloud computing revolution going on. Businesses are realizing the many great benefits of Hosted PBX by moving responsibilities, once maintained on-site by business personnel, out into the cloud. Hosted PBX means replacing the phone system that normally sits in a closet at a business with a full-featured voice over ip phone system as a service hosted in carrier grade data centers.

• It's Desktop VoIP feature phones, your LAN, and your modern Telephone Company.
• Easily supports your company's growth without surprise costs.
• Includes all the features and benefits of a top end, traditional PBX, but without the expense.
• 4 tiers of highly competent service specialists and engineers are available to support your business.
• Ease of adding or moving desktop phones without expensive "Home Run" wiring.
• Easily supports automatic emergency failover to a backup cable connection.

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Why Choose Monmouth Telecom for Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX in NJ?

Monmouth Telecom provides Hosted PBX in NJ using a state of the art hosted office telephone system. Allow your business to focus on your bottom line by removing the distractions associated with maintaining a phone system.

• Monmouth Telecom was established in 1995 as one of NJ's earliest Internet Providers. Nobody knows IP Technology like Monmouth Telecom.
• Monmouth Telecom became NJ's first ISP-CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier) in 2000.
• As a CLEC we can provide T1 and fiber transport to your business that guarantees the delivery of each voice packet on time every time to maintain the professional grade voice quality your business depends on
• Our local support team of technical experts can troubleshoot quickly on your premises if needed.
• Monmouth Telecom is a financially sound corporation  - We are debt free.

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Who should use a Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX?

Any New Business that has a need for telephone service. If you place or receive calls to and from customers, or employee to employee, you can benefit from a Hosted PBX Phone System.

• Time for an Upgrade - If you are an existing business and you are outgrowing or outliving your Traditional PBX Phone System, please read about the benefits of a Hosted PBX Phone System or contact us for a free consultation.
• Feature Envy - Many businesses are switching for a feature that their current phone system cannot support, like call recording or internet fax. Visit our Hosted PBX Features page for a more extensive review of the features provided by Monmouth Telecom Hosted PBX.
• Multiple Locations - If you have Multiple Business Locations, a Hosted PBX has a number of special advantages. A Virtual PBX can connect all the locations into one seamless phone system, allowing for greater productivity. Learn more about the benefits of Hosted PBX for Multiple Business Locations. Learn more about Hosted PBX Advantages for Businesses with Multiple Locations.
• The Quality Conscious Business - Businesses with demands for Guaranteed Call Quality and High Reliability will especially appreciate the built in redundancy that an established telephone carrier adheres to. Read More about how Monmouth Telecom has designed a network that doesn't compromise on quality or reliability.
• The Cost Conscious - With significantly lower up front costs, and total cost of ownership, Hosted PBX is perfect for the Business focused on the bottom line.  Let us prepare a custom Hosted PBX cost analysis for you.
• Hosted PBX for the Healthcare Industry

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Benefits of Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX

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Save Money with Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX

There are 5 key reasons why Hosted PBX is so much more economical than a traditional PBX.

1. The Hardware cost associated with the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET just disappears.
2. The repair and upgrade service trips to the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET just disappear. 
3. The Interest/Financing charge on the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET just disappears.
4. It is easier to administer, maintain, and upgrade phone system configuration software on a cluster of servers in our data center than on scads of BOXES-IN-THE-CLOSETS of all different ages and software types and versions and geographic locations.
5. New features are added all the time, so you won't ever have to throw out your system for a new one, at great expense.

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Complete Accountability

Many components and systems make up or contribute to a successfully functioning Hosted PBX system. These include:

• LAN Cabling
• LAN Switches
• VoIP Telephone
• Router(s)
• Internet or Private IP Connection
• Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX Provider
• Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX Provider's Telephone Company
• Interexchange (long distance) Telephone Carrier
• Telephone Carrier of the far End Party

When one of these malfunctions you want a single accountable company that can make things right quickly.

The last thing you want to hear is that your internet connection is poor as the generic answer to all problems.

By choosing Monmouth Telecom for the your Hosted PBX system and telecom carrier, you have a provider that has sufficient resources, control and proximity to provide sustained excellent service and to quickly diagnose any fault that may materialize and fix it promptly.

That is just not true for an out of state hosted PBX company and/or one that is not a telephone carrier (NJ CLEC) and/or one who uses the unwashed internet to deliver your service.  The unwashed internet is fine for backup/failover but it does not have sufficient prioritization (Quality of Service) to reliably guarantee sustained excellent voice quality.  

LAN (local area computer network) problems can be relevant here as well - these can include improper VPN or QOS configuration, intermittent switches, faulty cabling, or overloaded segments. These problems can arise in the day-to-day operation and upkeep of your LAN in the normal course of business. Monmouth Telecom has the expertise and the proximity to your NJ business to quickly diagnose the problem and repair it regardless of its nature.

Lastly, there can be problems with call routing or call quality that originate out in the Public Switched Telephone Network that arise from time to time and should be diagnosed and fixed quickly by your solution provider. This happens much more quickly when your Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX provider is its own Telephone Company and can deal with other Telephone Company's on a federally mandated peer basis.

By being the provider of your Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX in NJ, your telephone company, your telecom carrier, and your nearby LAN/VoIP experts, Monmouth Telephone has the accountability, the desire, and sufficient control and proximity to maintain the excellence of your Hosted PBX System performance in New Jersey.  Why go with a company that has only pieces of the puzzle who will build you a solution that almost works?

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Higher Reliability

Monmouth Telecom Provides utmost reliability for its hosted PBX customers by establishing redundancy at virtually every step of the call path.

• A multi-channel T1 pipe to your business can be backed up with failover to cable service.
• A traditional PBX BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET has no standby processors.  No BOX - NO single point of failure.
• All nodes or switches in the voice path at Monmouth Telecom have automatic failover to hot standby mirror components.
• Monmouth Telecom has 4 voice long distance carriers, any one of which can carry all of our traffic.
• Monmouth Telecom has multiple Internet upstream providers to avoid Internet outages to our customers.
• Monmouth Telecom has a reserve stock of spare routers and switches that support repairs on your NJ premises any time of the day or night.

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Unlimited Scalability

• Phones (Extensions) can be added at any time in any quantity.
• New Business Locations can be added at any time
• No concerns about running out of space on a card/shelf/enclosure
• No limit on the number of calls using the Auto Attendant system or Voice Mail
• Handle large call volumes efficiently with Call Queues

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Save on Wiring

With a legacy phone system, every office phone needs its own physical wire connecting the phone all the way to the phone system in the closet. This is a very inefficient way to wire an office and it has a number of disadvantages.

Installation Costs

The Old Way:  When you install a new phone, you also need to run a new cable all the way to the phone system closet. This could be a hundreds of feet. Most businesses pay an hourly fee for their PBX Vendor to drive out and run the cable. This can easily cost hundreds of dollars.

How you save with Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX:  No need for "Home Runs" With a Voice Over IP (VoIP) Business Phone System, your VoIP Phones reside on your Local Area Network (LAN). This means that there is *no wiring required at all* in any location within your office that has a PC with an internet connection.

Ongoing Maintenance Costs

The Old Way:  When an employee moves from one place in the office to another, they usually need to bring their Computer and their Phone with them. The Computer is usually easy, unplug it in one place, move it, and plug it back in, in the new place. The phone however needs to either be re-programmed or the wiring needs to be changed in the phone closet. Most businesses pay an hourly fee for their PBX Vendor to drive out and perform this at a cost of over one hundred dollars.

The Freedom to Take your Phone Anywhere with Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX:  Unplug your phone from your desk, and plug it in anywhere on your LAN. No configuration required, No wiring required, No hassle!

What if I don't have a Lan Cable/Cat 5 Cable/internet connection at the location where I want a VoIP Phone?

You have two options in this case. If this will be a permanent location for a phone, Monmouth Telecom is a full service telecom provider, and that includes additional wiring requirements! Alternatively we can recommend a number of wireless phones depending on the physical characteristics of your environment. Contact us for additional information and we would be happy to schedule a site survey to assist with any of your wiring needs.

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Technical Support

One Throat to Choke

1. An internet connection from the Cable Company
2. A VoIP connection from a National VoIP Company
3. Phones installed by a local LAN contractor or your in-house IT Personnel.

All works well for some time, and then your voice quality begins to degrade intermittently.  Who is to blame?  Is it your LAN?  Is it your internet?  Or is it the VoIP Provider?  The answer is it doesn't matter, because they will all point the finger at each other while you suffer.  Does this sound far fetched?  We come across these scenarios every day.

Monmouth Telecom is a full service provider.  We can provide all three of those services, and then guarantee and monitor them to make sure they work when you need them most.

What is the cost and quality of ongoing technical support after the first few years? 

PBX Vendors make most of their profit the day you buy the pbx, from the mark up on the equipment. To be competitive in price they often do not leave themselves enough margin to cover the ongoing costs of support. The end result is that the support you receive is second rate. Here are some examples of the corners they are cutting:

• Where are the spare parts when you need them? PBX Vendors do not keep a sufficient stock of spares for all of the different PBX's they sell.
• PBX Vendors are generally smaller outfits without a tiered support team. PBX Vendors do not have the technical expertise in the modern office where the internet and the phone system have merged.
• Expensive Maintenance Agreement or Ala Cart charges for the simplest changes.
• Where is the vendor when you need him?

Here are some examples where Monmouth Telecom Hosted PBX Goes above and beyond in support:

• Full Service Staff dedicated to New Jersey
• Four Tiers of Highly Competent Support Staff
• 24x365 Hour Monitoring
• Unlimited Telephone and Email Technical Support
• Stock of Spare Network Components
• Fleet of Dispatch ready support specialists centrally located in Red Bank, NJ

Advantages of Hosting your Service with the Developer

If you have been following the Cloud Services Revolution, then you know that it's all about the support.  When you host an application with the developer and maintainer of that software, there is a natural synergy that occurs that results in the user receiving a higher level of service.  We don't host Microsoft Exchange or Salesforce, but Microsoft and Salesforce do.  We only provide Hosted PBX, because we are a Telephone and Internet Service Provider and that is where our expertise lie.  When you need a new feature, you don't want to tell your PBX Vendor who will send a letter to the Manufacturer.  With Monmouth Telecom Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX you can make your feature requests directly to us, and we will be more than happy to develop them.  Have a feature idea?  Contact us!

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Why the Cloud is More Eco-Friendly

Customer Premise Based Phone Systems make inefficient use of resources. Consider this diagram provided by Google to explain how economies of scale in the data center allow providers to make more efficient use of resources.

Each server uses approximately the same amount of power, regardless of how much work it is doing. This is because the server needs to be powered on and ready to handle any workload. The energy a server uses is a function of the hardware inside the server, more than its present workload. In the above diagram we see that the same number of customers can be served by:

• 6 Premise Based Systems
• 4 Cloud Based Systems

In our case the story is a lot more dramatic.  With a cluster of fewer than 20 Servers in various data centers within New Jersey, we have the capacity to provide VoIP Service to tens of thousands of businesses.  This is because of one simple fact:

When you are on the phone with a co-worker, you are not using any Monmouth Telecom resources.  

The call audio is redirected so that it does not leave your building.  This better overall efficiency contributes to how we can give you the best pricing in the industry.  Contact us for more information today!

How does all this affect reliability?  Great Question!  Reliability of your Phone System is dramatically improved.  Learn Why.

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Simplicity of Service

Monmouth Telecom Hosted PBX Phone System integrates with all of your existing familiar technology.

Web

Various features of the system for users and administrators are accessible over every major web browser including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome.  You can access the system interface anywhere with a computer.

Email

Receive voicemail messages or call recordings, right to your email.  Receive these emails in your office, on your mobile phone, or at your home.

Telephone and Email Support

Monmouth Telecom has been a 24x365 Business Telephone and Internet Provider for over a decade.  Getting in touch with us is easy.

Common Tasks

To demonstrate how simple to use our Hosted PBX Phone System is, here are some common tasks you would perform on a Phone System.

How do I set up a Call Forward for my extension?

There is a call forward button on your phone. Press it, and you will be prompted for the number to forward to.

How do I set up my extension to try to find me at my mobile phone and my home office when i don't answer at my desk?

You can log into your user portal with any browser from any internet connection!  With one click you are on the call forwarding page.  Enter your number in the prominent telephone number text area.  Click save and you're done!

Can I check my voicemail remotely?

In the user portal, you can enter an email address. All voicemails will be sent to your email, with the voicemail message attached. Listen to it on your smartphone, or at any computer.  You also have a remote telephone access number as well as visual voicemail through the web.

Have a problem?

Send us an email at hpbx-support@monmouth.com or give us a call at 732-704-9950. After you contact us, we won't forget about your issue until you tell us you are satisfied with the resolution.

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VoIP Pitfalls

All VoIP Providers were not created equal. In fact there is one huge distinction that separates them. You would never know this distinction by browsing all the different VoIP Provider websites. When you are evaluating a VoIP Provider ask this question:

Is this VoIP Provider also a Local Internet Service Provider and a Telephone Company?

Why should it matter if they are an ISP or a telco? The shocking answer is that without both of those capabilities, the VoIP Provider cannot guarantee the quality. It will only be a matter of days before you experience degraded audio, call your VoIP Provider, and they tell you the famous line:

I'm sorry but your internet connection is having a problem.  Please contact your Internet Provider.

This is where the finger pointing begins. Is your VoIP Provider right? Is it your internet connection that is the problem? How will you find out? The only way is for your IT Personnel to have a conference call with an expert at the Internet Provider and an expert at the VoIP Provider. I'm sure you are all too familiar with how hard it is to get an expert on the phone at these National Providers.  Well now you need two experts at once! Or if you prefer you can play the middleman and go back and forth between them all the while your business is suffering.

Consider the following alternative.

You purchase a dedicated internet connection from Monmouth Telecom. You also purchase a Hosted PBX VoIP Phone System. Monmouth Telecom dispatches out to install and test a dedicated internet connection, install all the phones, LAN switches, and a router. Monmouth Telecom employs QoS on your dedicated internet connection to make sure that your other traffic (Web Browsing, Email) never interferes with your Higher Priority Voice. In the unlikely event that you should ever experience any issues at all with your Hosted PBX VoIP Phone System, you know whom to call.  All of the responsibility lies with your carrier, Monmouth Telecom, who has all of the expertise and resources to handle the problem.  It wasn't easy to become an Internet Service Provider in 1994. It was also a lot of work to become a Telephone Company and a certified public utility in New Jersey when Monmouth Internet became Monmouth Telecom in 2000. However, now we are uniquely positioned to provide you with a Hosted Office Phone System that works.

Contact Us now for your free evaluation and consultation.

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Box In The Closet

The Traditional PBX (business phone system) is in its twilight years. Here's why:

• Scales Poorly
  Add a few extensions and you can be outgrowing a card, or a shelf, or even an enclosure.  These systems just aren't designed to scale economically. For example, many traditional PBX customers are shocked to find that only 4 callers can be using the auto-attendant module at the same time on some systems. 
• Expensive to Add New Features
  For example, try adding conference bridges or call recording on your traditional PBX to see the cost skyrocket.
• Becomes Obsolete Quickly
  The average time to replace a traditional PBX is 6 years for a reason.
• Wastes Space and Energy
  In the last 5 years, virtually all of the traditional PBX vendors have switched their phones to VoIP.  The funny thing is that VoIP phones (if they are not deliberately non-standard) allows for the complete elimination of the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET without any transfer of cost to your network provider.   So what is the purpose of the power and space that this old boat anchor is using?
• Time to Repair is Uncertain
  Your traditional PBX reseller/vendor typically has a small business with one owner/operator and a few helpers.  When your BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET breaks, he/she can be on the other end of the state with another emergency repair.  You either wait for the main guy or get an inexperienced helper.  Worse still, your PBX vendor usually can't stock spare parts for every make, model, and feature card for every PBX he/she has sold. - So you can be told that your BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET will be fixed in 3 days when the parts come in from Paducah.
• Moving is Difficult
  So bad, in fact, that many businesses decide to get a new system when they move rather than relocate the old one.
• Fraud Risk
  When your PBX vendor leaves a default config so that any Tom Dick and Harry can call into to your auto-attendant and then dial out to make satellite toll calls in Somalia you can get hit with thousands and thousands of dollars by the professional thieves that look for wrongly configured telephone system.  Your PBX vendor will then, with nearly total certainty, disclaim all responsibility for your expensive catastrophe.   With Hosted PBX, this "Feature" is not only not the default; it is not a customer configurable option.  If something like this happens, it is Monmouth Telecom's responsibility and not yours. You only have to worry about making sure that your employees don't stay late (or steal a phone) and make unauthorized calls and this is typically a problem that is hundreds of times less expensive than a professional hacking problem from a place far away from your premises. Another place where your PBX vendor can let you down in a costly way is by forgetting to configure your PBX auto-attendant to drop calls after a few minutes.  Not doing this leads to expensive, but useless multi hour 800 calls from sites unknown. Monmouth Telecom's Hosted PBX Auto Attendant feature has an automatic disconnect in less than 1 minute upon no response.
• Manufacturer Lock-In
  You don't like the feature set - too bad you're locked in.  The phones are no longer competitively priced - too bad you're locked in.
• Its Expensive
  With the uptake of VoIP phones even by traditional PBX manufactures the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET is still an expensive piece of equipment that no longer has any purpose.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Hosted PBX / Virtual PBX

Q.  If Virtual PBX / Hosted PBX is so superior why do the traditional PBX vendors keep selling the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET?

1. The Hardware cost associated with the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET just disappears. Of course you still pay for tech support on each solution.
2. The repair and upgrade service trips to the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET just disappear. 
3. The Interest/Financing charge on the BOX-IN-THE-CLOSET just disappears.
4. It is easier to administer, maintain, and upgrade phone system configuration software on a cluster of servers in our data center than on scads of BOXES-IN-THE-CLOSETS of all different ages and software types and versions and geographic locations.
5. New features are added all the time, so you won't ever have to throw out your system for a new one, at great expense.

Q.  I have my own VoIP phones.  Can I use them?

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