Why the PBX is Obsolete
Technology has a way of simplifying a process. About a hundred years ago, the few people who had cars needed hand cranks to start their car engines. Now cars are ubiquitous and folks can even start them without a key.
The cloud brings several benefits to contact centers but a crucial one is its ability to deliver a simpler and better operating model to what can be a very complex environment. A big example of this is the ability to sunset an expensive chunk of hardware whose time has gone the way of the engine crank—the PBX.
Especially for outbound contact centers, the PBX has always been Purchase A or B when building their sites. And people typically buy more than they need considering some shops don’t use agent directories and have only a skeleton back office crew to support. Then, when a shop decides to tap into the cost efficiency of VoIP out comes the PBX sales rep again with a six-figure price tag on an IP PBX (and all the maintenance and support calls that comes with it) that he/she says you need in order to upgrade your network.
It’s time to say “No thank you.” Technology has advanced and the PBX is no longer needed. It’s gone the way of the hand crank, and it’s a needless box that costs monthly support and maintenance and ultimately prevents contact centers from simplifying networks and improving call routing.
The PBX at its root is a phone switch to deliver dial tone—to connect your center to the greater PSTN. Cloud switching eliminates this issue through direct access to carrier backbones. Site-based switching adds multiple layers to a contact center’s network, while cloud switching flattens those layers and delivers more flexibility.
Combined with soft phones, contact centers can eliminate PBX for agents completely and tap into the benefits of VoIP/MPLS without hardware. LiveVox detailed both its cloud switching methodology and outlined the simple path to VoIP without an IP PBX in recent whitepapers (available here).
LiveVox has also announced that it has integrated the ACD/PBX on its Cloud Contact Center further freeing contact centers from the cost and the inflexibility of hardware.
