Local government officials are responsible to their communities to manage public services seamlessly. Demand creates challenges for adequate telecommunications systems that also fall within local budgets.
A hosted phone system can provide affordable efficiency to community leaders, including high-cost efficiency. Microsoft reports that 85 percent of businesses using VoIP have reported cost savings.
Additionally, Gartner expects 85 percent of businesses will switch to a managed telecommunications service by 2025. Organizations change to have higher scale efficiency and be more competitive.
What Is a Hosted Phone System?
A hosted phone system uses a Private Branch Exchange and Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, to host a business phone system over an internet connection. “Hosted” refers to hiring a third party to manage these technologies for the organization.
The Federal Communications Commission describes “VoIP” as technology allowing the user to call over a broadband connection. This tech pairs with Private Branch Exchange or PBX technology to host a business’ telecommunications service. PBX is telephone technology that switches calls between users on local lines within an enterprise.
In simplified terms, hosted telephone technology connects to the web from a business’ office router and then transfers a package of call data to a remote VoIP server. In a more layered system, the call can connect to a landline phone using an additional technology called a public switched telephone network or PSTN.
The capability to switch between internet and analog phone systems with this technology makes a hosted phone service a versatile telecommunications option. Likewise, hosted technologies’ capacity to transmit calls across diverse systems makes the scale easy and cost-efficient.
Who Should Use a Hosted Phone System?
Hosted phone systems are beneficial to a broad range of entities. These organizations share an affinity to the range of communications tools they can use through a hosted system while saving on costs by hosting phones via an existing broadband network.
Small business has benefited from using hosted systems because, with a smaller staff, having telecommunications managed by a third-party vendor can cut down on internal overhead from additional energy costs, hiring maintenance providers, and so on.
Will a Hosted Phone System Be Good for Local Government?
For the specific needs of local governments, telecoms researchers express multi-level uses for hosted telephone systems. Broader use of a hosted system can ensure the real-time transfer of information over fixed lines.
Hosted telephone service is a viable alternative to traditional phone lines in a power outage. The reason is the hosted service can be on a separate power grid, keeping the phones online even when local electricity is out of commission.
By keeping phones operational, local governments can take incentives that would be blocked for traditional systems. Hosted systems back up the system in a way that traditional phones do not.
Improving Local Government Via Better Communications
Communications are the bedrock of any well-run system. The government has added layers of complexity, such as compliance and handling a citizen’s personally identifiable information.
For local governments, having a system that can rise to the occasion of well-oiled machine function and full compliance is essential to keep civil services running at optimum levels.
Better Communications with Rhode Island Telephone
Rhode Island Telephone partners with businesses and organizations to untangle all the complex angles of fully hosted telecom services across the Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut areas. From installing business phone systems, to integrating web conference calling, Rhode Island Telephone streamlines all aspects of an entity’s hosted communications needs.
