Zoom Phone is a cloud phone system natively built for the Zoom platform. Seamless and secure, Zoom Phone streamlines the telecommunications experience with enterprise-class features on a unified platform that includes video conferencing and team chat. It offers centralized management, enabling IT teams to easily provision and manage users, as well as monitor call quality and usage data in the Zoom administrator portal.
Scalable and Secure Cloud PBX Phone Systems
What is a cloud PBX?
A private branch exchange, or PBX, is a telecom switch that typically exists on the physical premises of a business, requiring IT teams to maintain costly on-site phone system hardware. A cloud PBX is the virtual version of the PBX system, with the cloud business phone system using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) to automatically answer and route calls.
A traditional PBX is hardwired with the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to initiate a call. With virtual PBX solutions, the PSTN network uses an internet connection to route the call. Cloud PBX services are hosted in secure, remote data centers, versus physical locations.
Why switch to a cloud PBX system?
Advantages of Cloud PBX vs. Hosted PBX
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Hosted PBX |
Cloud PBX |
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|---|---|---|
Cost-effectiveness |
Massive on-site phone system hardware that comes with hidden maintenance costs and charges for long-distance calls. |
Up-front costs are tempered by the ongoing ease of a cloud PBX. Maintenance costs are nearly nonexistent — businesses simply upgrade the desktop or mobile app when there’s a fix or update. |
Ease of use |
With employees often receiving one dedicated piece of hardware each, a legacy PBX system requires workers to stay at their desks to receive phone calls. If they need to move desks, they have to change phone numbers. |
A virtual PBX frees users from their desk phones, giving them the ability to communicate regardless of their location or their device. With cloud PBX business phone systems, employees have the flexibility to communicate from anywhere, transfer calls to video meetings, streamline global telephony carrier management, and more. |
Management |
IT administrators provision users through a lengthy, manual process. They can’t roll out updates, monitor usage, or troubleshoot issues their phone systems might have. |
IT teams can easily provision and manage users, as well as intelligently monitor business interactions with a centralized administration portal. |
Reliability |
Businesses are forced to rely on business phone hardware in their office and their local phone service provider, which can be an issue if there are equipment issues, power failure, or local outages. |
As long as users have an internet connection, they can make and receive calls from a PC or mobile device. If a building has a power outage, users can still make calls from another location. |
Integrations & partnerships |
Traditional PBX solutions typically leave businesses stuck with one single hardware provider. Employees don’t have the ability to connect phone communications with other business applications. |
Some cloud PBX providers, like Zoom Phone, integrate with leading business applications, as well as work with a select number of hardware partners. Users may also have the option to use their current phone service provider to power a cloud PBX service. |
Support |
Maintenance calls for expert IT technicians and service changes typically result in a lengthy request process. |
A Cloud-hosted PBX service like Zoom Phone offer quality monitoring dashboards and call detail reporting, giving administrators the power to proactively monitor and troubleshoot call quality issues. |
Zoom Phone: Cloud PBX from a trusted service provider
Zoom Workplace
Enable modern collaboration with chat, phone, whiteboard, and video meetings in a single offering.
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Start a phone call or video meeting from a chat message
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Collaborate on a whiteboard from your desktop or room, and easily share it with others
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See whether a colleague is available with presence status
Zoom Workplace — your all-in-one communication and collaboration offering.
Unify your communications
Disparate communication systems are costly, complex, and ultimately unsustainable in today’s complex business landscape. To remain competitive, businesses need agile and flexible solutions that enable employees to work efficiently from anywhere. They need a comprehensive communications platform — one that includes video conferencing, phone service, team chat, and more.
Zoom Phone comes as part of Zoom’s entire suite of solutions. With Zoom Meetings and Team Chat, Zoom Webinars, Zoom Phone, and Zoom Rooms, we solve the challenge of juggling multiple tools by combining business communications on one streamlined platform.
Entirely cloud-based, the Zoom unified communications platform offers greater flexibility, reliability, and scalability. You can spend less time managing different systems and contracts, and more time improving productivity, enhancing collaboration, and getting work done.
Cloud PBX FAQ
The price of a Cloud PBX depends on the phone service you choose, the number of users, and any additional features. A standard cloud PBX system plan can range between $120 and $300 /year/user on average, depending on the type of plan.
Migrating to a PBX cloud phone system is easy — just connect with a Zoom Phone product specialist to learn what it takes to adopt a system and select a plan to suit your business needs. Once a system is provisioned, IT administrators can navigate a straightforward, step-by-step process to set up company phone numbers, add users, provision devices, and more.
With Zoom Phone, you can add or remove licenses easily if you need to add or remove users. You can also upgrade your account, change the frequency of payments, and purchase add-on plans at any time.
While it depends on your plan, some cloud PBX services provide unlimited calling to certain countries. For Zoom Phone specifically, we offer an “International Calling Add-On” that provides unlimited international calling to the following countries/territories: U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Puerto Rico.
In many locations, you can use existing phone numbers by porting the number to the provider. Zoom Phone works with your previous service provider and ports the phone number to your Zoom Phone account. Once the porting process is done, you can assign the ported phone numbers to users.
