PBX System Features Explained

The features of your PBX system (Private Branch Exchange) start with the basics of what your business will use to communicate externally and internally. Most phone systems ship with a core set of features that any business requires. Some are obvious like voicemail, while some are not so obvious, like the ability to put a call on hold. Here’s a list of features to at least be aware of when considering a purchase:

Basic PBX System Features

Voicemail

Voicemail is an essential feature in this day and age and allows callers to leave messages in specific mail boxes usually assigned to employees or departments. Make sure the PBX Phone System has enough ports to support the maximum number of callers who could simultaneously leave messages or the maximum number of employees who could simultaneously check messages.

Call Hold

The ability to place a call on hold is a basic but often forgotten feature. It’s useful for employees to place calls on hold when they need to seek help before answering a call or perform a function on the call like forwarding or conferencing.

Call Forward

Businesses use call forwarding to transfer calls to other extensions. Calls can be forwarded to employees, voicemail boxes, the auto attendant or hunt groups (logical groups of employees like the sales department – where the call is transferred to the first person to answer).

Conferencing

Creating a conference call is a critical business feature, particularly for organisations that interact with customers, consultants, and other external parties. Look for systems that allow you to conference at least 5 parties at a time. Also look for conferencing that allows the originator of the conference to exit the conference without disconnecting the other participants.

Speed Dial

Speed dial allows callers to assign commonly dialled numbers to a button on the handset. Pressing that button will then dial the number associated with that button.

Redial

Similar to speed dial, pressing the redial button on a handset will redial the last number called.

Auto-Attendant

The automated attendant often takes the place of a real receptionist. We’ve all interacted with auto-attendants before – they are the recorded messages you hear when you call a business that provide you with call routing options such as “press 3 to speak with someone in customer service.”

Paging

Not necessarily a required feature, but a useful one when used appropriately, paging allows an employee to broadcast a message to the speaker of another handset.

Advanced PBX System Capabilities

More and more businesses are focusing on a few advanced features that are providing significant benefits to them, including:

Location features

Many businesses want to make use of modern location features that allow a distributed workgroup in several cities or locations to operate as if they were all extensions to a single PBX Phone System. These location features make these issues transparent and can even handle employees working from home or temporary locations without callers having any idea that employees are in different locations.

CTI

Computer Telephony Integration or CTI, allows the PBX Phone System and computers to interact. Allowing callers to click on a number displayed on their computer screen to dial that number is an example of CTI use. A more advanced example is integrating your new PBX Phone System into a CRM (customer relationship management) application.

Find Me/Follow Me

Find me/follow me service allows the PBX Phone System to track down employees regardless of their location. For example, a salesperson may tell the PBX Phone System to route inbound calls from his office line to his mobile phone when he is on the road. More complex rule sets are easy to set up.

Download our handy telephone system checklist to help you when choosing a new telephone system.