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Hybrid Phone Systems

Widely considered a middle-ground between a traditional phone system and a Voice over IP technology (or VOIP/hosted telephony) system, a hybrid phone system installed with the help of Gulaga Networks could give you the best of both worlds. These on-premise phone systems retain many of the advantageous features of external ISDN line connections while incorporating the flexibility and insight provided by Cloud-hosted features.

Hybrid phone systems can be a great choice for businesses of all sizes, incorporating scalable systems while potentially managing the cost savings that can come with SIP technology. As a stepping stone between traditional office telephony systems and cloud-based VoIP solutions, hybrid telephone systems can help organisations make the transition to VoIP telephony seamlessly and to minimize business risk.


How do Hybrid Phone Systems work?

Hybrid Phone Systems are a blend of a Digital Phone System and an Internet-based (VOIP) Phone System. This means you can make and receive using SIP Lines, Digital Lines, and/or even Analogue Lines. The system would be located in your business office and it offers flexibility with the choice of both cordless and fixed handsets.

As such, hybrid phone systems are able to make use of both ISDN and SIP phone lines, meaning that they can more flexibly manage which systems they rely on and, thus, their communication costs.

Traditionally, hybrid phone systems tend to act as a stepping stone between analogue or ISDN based PBX systems and Cloud-based VOIP systems. After connecting your existing system over the internet, you may eventually want to fully migrate to a hosted VOIP system.


What are the key Features of Hybrid Phone Systems?

As hybrid phone systems combine technologies from two different kinds of communication solutions, they can be extremely feature-rich. Which features apply will depend on which system you choose, but here are just a few of the examples seen from across many products on the market:

  • Voicemail to email: The digital system allows you to easily configure your voicemail message to inform inbound callers of the circumstances, whether you are away at a meeting or out of the office for holidays. Furthermore, hybrid phone systems can record the message and send it in an email, or even transcribe into text, so you can access even if you are not on the system.
  • Call logging: If a call has been missed, you can ensure that you follow up on it. Hybrid telephone systems log the details of all calls in a dashboard that you can access, so you can see the number of who tried calling even if they haven’t left a voicemail.
  • Call waiting: Rather than turning your clients and other inbound callers away, a hybrid phone system can connect them with a receptionist or, if they are busy, can play music or a marketing message. As such, they can wait on the line, knowing that their call is likely to be answered.
  • Call recording: Recorded calls can be used for a range of internal improvements. For training purposes, auditing, or data gathering, you can listen to all calls received and made through the hybrid phone system. Make calling your business a positive experience, every time. You can improve and monitor the way your staff speak to clients over the phone.
  • Call transfer: Like most phone systems, hybrid phone systems allow you to transfer a caller from one line to the other at the touch of a button. However, the Cloud-hosted dashboard enables you to do this as easily from a computer screen as you can from a phone.
  • Automatic call routing: Some hybrid phone systems can be programmed in advance to make sure that callers are able to reach someone, no matter who is available at the given moment. Automatic call routing could have a call go through to one person or team and, if they are not available, onto the next likely relevant person or team, enabling faster response and less chance of a missed call.

If there are any features that are specifically important to you and your organization, don’t hesitate to mention them to us. We would be delighted to help install a system that fits your business needs in the most cost-effective manner possible.


What are Benefits of Hybrid Phone Systems?

As mentioned before, Hybrid Phone Systems allow businesses to enjoy the advantages of both analogue ISDN phones, as well as the SIP technology of Cloud-based VoIP systems. But what are those advantages?

  • Reduce the line rental costs: Many business owners consider hybrid phone systems a mid-point between their analogue or digital system and conversion to a full SIP based phone communication systems. Hybrid systems allow you to manage the costs by migrating the system part-way, first, rather than having to pay for a full-scale migration straight away.
  • Best of both worlds: One of the main benefits of a Hybrid Phone System is that they offer more reliability than both VOIP and Digital Phone Systems. If one type of line fails e.g ISDN, it can automatically route calls in and out over SIP. This includes ensuring that you still have access to traditional phone lines if you somehow lose access to your Cloud-hosted call services. Of course, the SIP connections offer the same advantage if your ISDN lines cut out.
  • Flexible configuration and expansion: If you need to scale your office communications, doing it with a hybrid phone system is much easier than doing it with a traditional digital or analogue connection. You can connect new digital devices to the system very easily and you may not have to buy additional equipment. Simply buy additional SIP licenses to increase call capacity.
  • Equipment uniformity: Hybrid PBX handsets from e.g. NEC, Panasonic or Avaya are designed by the manufacturer to work with the specific Hybrid office phone system, and therefore the features are easily accessible, and it is generally a more elegant and consistent solution. Hosted VOIP tends to require that you use shortcodes to access key features, as the popular handsets e.g Cisco, Yealink, Polycom or SNOM are usually a different manufacturer to the hosted platform, sometimes resulting in limited features. The broadband router and POE switches are also usually made by different manufacturers.

While hybrid business phone systems may often be considered a single step in the transition from ISDN phone systems to VoIP solutions, their advantages are worth considering. If you are not certain which office phone systems’ advantages are best suited to your needs, we are here to help and advise you.

Hybrid phone systems have many variations with regard to combining the different features and access providers, making it the most flexible choice for business owners that wish to optimise company communications. For example, companies with a large centralised office and several remote locations or remote workers international companies, logistics companies, chain stores, and many others, are all potential users of this type of office phone system.


Get in touch with us today

The differences and distinctions between VoIP, Hybrid Phone Systems, and PBX systems can be blurry and confusing. Rather than bogging you down with the technical jargon, Gulaga Networks is here to help you find the system that best suits your specific business needs. We know there are no one-size-fits-all solutions, and therefore we will work with you to find the one solution that fits you best.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch with Gulaga Networks. We’d be glad to arrange a consultation with you to find the communication solution that meets your needs, whether hybrid or otherwise.