Small businesses shouldn’t think small when it comes to their business phone systems. Robust and feature-rich phone systems were once a burden on a business’ budget, but Cox Business’ IP Centrex allows you to maintain that lifeline to your customers, while giving you the flexibility to scale and giving you the greatest return on investment.
Questions answered by Cody Sims, Sr. Voice Product Manager
Why is choosing the ideal phone system for a business an important decision?
When your phones work the way you want them to they basically become invisible to your business. Everyone is doing their task, communicating with clients and vendors without a thought to the phones. When the phones DON’T work, every task that requires communication becomes a burden – worse, your clients and vendors feel it. Finding the right system that can “get out of the way” of your productivity is critical. And every once in a while, you’ll find a system that can actually boost productivity. Just as with any impactful decision, every hour used in determining the right solution for your business is worth 10 hours of frustration and pain in the future.
What is IP Centrex?
IP Centrex is a hosted and managed business phone system. Yes, it’s an IP PBX system with all of the great features that are available because of the cloud architecture, but it’s more than that. It means your phone system is no longer your job to baby sit. Cox provides all of the equipment as a service. Any question, change, update, problem with voice communication, you call Cox. You don’t have to worry about “is it the phone system? Is it the local line? Is it the Long distance?” One provider means one point of resolution.
What differentiates IP Centrex from other phone system choices in the market?
With the advent of the IP PBX, there is a host of really good phone systems available for businesses. What’s different about IP Centrex from Cox is the ability to harness the benefits that come from an IP PBX without having a huge upfront capital expenditure or a lease factor that essentially pays the bank a lending fee. Businesses who have available capital do not typically say to themselves “I’m really excited to go spend this money on a new phone system!” No, business owners want to spend that capital on assets that have to do directly with their business. This is probably why there are so many businesses who have aging phone systems that they “put up with” for as long as possible until the pain outweighs their disdain for spending cash on a phone system. With Cox, IP Centrex is a paradigm shift where the equipment, programming, and support are all available as a monthly service charge. And, new features and functionality are pushed to you – there’s no charges for firmware upgrades and feature enhancements. This ever-green approach means you don’t have to cycle through phone systems that eventually age and fall apart.
What kind of efficiencies will users find after implementing IP Centrex into their business?
As part of the implementation process, Cox provides a skilled application designer to help the business program the system around how you do business. For some businesses, having an automated system for call routing is essential to free up scarce resources. For others, having a live person answer every call is their top priority. Cox will help you identify your top communication priorities and develop a call flow that moves calls naturally and supports the culture of your business.
Is IP Centrex better suited for a small or large business?
IP Centrex is a scalable solution that can support small businesses with as few as 5 stations all the way up to campus style environments. Cox is also rolling out new functionality to enhance enterprise needs in the coming months.
Questions about IP Centrex?
Call (402) 934-3891
or visit coxbusiness.com