What is the difference between an IP-Pbx telephone system and a normal PBX?

by Alex Dunne

Question by kakashisama_sharingan s: What is the difference between an IP-Pbx telephone system and a normal PBX?
So i am looking for a telphone system for my small sized company. We need something that provides us one phone number but in case the line is busy another staff member can get the diverted call even though he/she is sitting in a completely seperate country.

What are the differences between IP-PBX and normal PBX systems. We have roughly 14 employees so would need around that many phone lines of similar numbers.

Thank you.
P:s could you also link some product if u have in mind thanks.


Best answer:

Answer by Jennifer
A traditional pbx system is going to be a hardware solution to plug all of the telephone lines into. While a virtual PBX is going to be a software solution. IP phones work particularly well for a virtual PBX because all of the phones are connected to your LAN within the office.

Here is a link to Axon which is a very cost effective virtual PBX that you can combine with other application to make a complete phone system.
http://www.nch.com.au/pbx/plus.html
for example add IVM for an auto attendant and voicemail, and/or IMS for advanced on-hold messaging capabilities.

You can use this system with either VoIP telephone lines which would be easiest and cheaper if you decide to go that route, or you can use it with your standard analog landline phone lines too, but you will need additional harware in the form of a telephony board or fxo adapter to connect the phoneline(s) to your computer
(ex. http://www.altoedge.com/telephony/index.html )

Since you mentioned IP here are some IP telephones that you can take a look at:
http://www.altoedge.com/ipphones/index.html

I hope that is at least a good start to an answer for you!

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!