3CX phone systems are ideal for modern businesses seeking enhanced communication capabilities and cost efficiency.
The 3CX phone system features include mobility, allowing employees and customers to communicate effectively regardless of location or device, and other vital aspects enhancing mobile connectivity.
Effective communication is no longer necessary in the rapidly evolving business landscape—it's a strategic advantage.
Modern communication solutions can transform business efficiency by integrating cutting-edge technology with everyday operations. These advancements streamline internal processes and enhance customer interactions, ultimately driving growth and productivity.
At LeapIT, we are dedicated to integrating advanced technology to meet businesses' unique needs. One solution that embodies this commitment is the 3CX phone system, designed to revolutionise business communications.
What is 3CX?
Definition and Overview:
3CX is a cutting-edge software-based PBX system designed for modern businesses. It has exploded in popularity since its release in 2007. It has been renowned for its reliability, mobile applications, ease of use and compatibility with the most popular IP phones.
Unlike traditional PBX systems and traditional phone lines, 3CX manages your telephone calls through any internet connection to which your devices are connected.
The 3CX Phone System operates through the Internet, allowing users to make and receive calls from any device and location with Internet access. It has all the features you would expect from a modern phone system, including an auto attendant, company phone book, video call, call recording, and call routing, to name but a few.
Understanding PBX Systems:
Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems are private telephone networks that businesses tend to have on a wall in their offices. They have been around for several years and have been the standard in communications since the 1980s.
Traditional Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems rely on dedicated phone lines connected directly to the PBX, for example if you wanted 5 incoming lines to your business BT would need to connect 5 lines directly into your PBX.
Modern VoIP systems, on the other hand, utilise your internet connection to make and receive calls. Transitioning to IP-based systems offers numerous benefits, including cost savings, improved flexibility, and advanced communication features.
Introduction to IP Telephony:
A Voice over IP (VoIP) phone system is the modern version of a traditional PBX phone system and will become the standard phone system businesses use.
BT has announced that previous PBX systems and ISDN systems that some businesses moved to are being phased out and will be gone completely by January 31st, 2027.
Key Features of the 3CX Phone System: Call Recording
Unified Communications Suite:
Unlike outdated PBX or ISDN phone systems, 3CX is a unified communication suite, which means you have several ways to communicate with your customers.
This includes traditional voice calls, messaging (similar to text), video calls (similar to Teams and Zoom) and Mobile calls, where you can answer the main business calls on your mobile.
Mobile calls with the 3CX Mobile App (available from Google Play and the Apple Store) also means you can make calls from your mobile device that will display your main business number. This is great if you want to hide your actual mobile number.
These communication techniques are available to any business with the 3CX phone system.
3CX also links into your business applications, such as a CRM, with 3CX's CRM integrations. This means that if one of your clients calls your business, the CRM will automatically open the client details on your screen.
Conference Calls:
Conference calls where several people are on the same call are a standard feature within 3CX. You can send invites to several people and schedule them via your Outlook calendar so that all parties can join the call simultaneously.
This is great for handling new leads or enquiries into your business. These conference calls can also be changed to video calls with the click of a button, allowing all the participants to see each other.
Mobile App Integration:
As mentioned, the 3CX mobile apps allow you to use all the features of your 3CX phone system on your mobile phone. If your mobile has 3G, 4G, or 5G internet access, you can make and receive calls as if you were at your desk.
This is useful for field-based or sales staff and allows you to call your employees via their extension number, not their "07" mobile phone number. Businesses using the 3CX phone system have a highly flexible, highly portable one.
Phone Calls:
Call charges are also a thing of the past with Leap IT's 3CX VoIP phone system. Our 3CX phone system solution includes free calls to all numbers starting 01, 02, and 03, as well as free mobile calls to O2, EE, Vodafone, and Three mobile networks.
International calls work seamlessly with our 3CX phone system, and we can provide cost-per-minute charges for any country or destination you are likely to call outside of the free calls mentioned above.
Live Chat and Web Conferencing:
In addition to live chat (messaging similar to text messages and WhatsApp), you can also host web conferences directly on your 3CX phone system, where hundreds of people can join your presentation directly through their browsers.
You can also share your screen with your audience, set up whiteboards for active note-taking, and share whiteboards with the members so they can all contribute to the web conference call. This is also great for demonstrating your company's service and developing proposals for potential new clients.
Video Conferencing:
Video Conferencing is very similar to Web conferencing. The main difference is that video conferencing is an invite-only feature for video calls.
Web conferencing is a publicly available conference that anyone with a link can join. Both types of conferencing allow you to share your desktop screen, create whiteboards and share content with the participants. It's great for reviewing proposals with existing clients or holding staff and team meetings online.
4. Benefits of Using 3CX: Remote Working
Cost Efficiency:
The cost savings of moving to a 3CX phone system are significant compared to traditional PBX or ISDN systems. For starters, most of the calls you make on the system will be free, which is great if you have a telesales department within your organisation.
3CX also offers the option to buy your system outright, which is great if you don't want long contracts or a never-ending subscription for your phone system.
Scalability and Flexibility:
You can also add additional users to the system at no extra cost, a major difference between most VoIP phone systems such as Gamma Horizon or Hi-Hi, which have a per user per month subscription model
Advanced Call Management:
The way 3CX handles calls throughout your business is highly customisable. Inbound calls go to several people in a group, individual people such as receptionists, and fallback queues. If the phone doesn't get answered in a certain amount of time, call all extensions.
Calls can also be recorded, which is great for legal compliance and resolving any disputes that might arise regarding what was said on the call.
A 3CX phone system is also compatible with a digital receptionist, where callers can select a pre-defined number to connect straight through to departments in your business. You can also have customised on-hold music, and 3CX state their position in the queue for call centre requirements.
Business SMS and Messaging:
You can also handle business SMS messages from within 3CX. This takes away the need for employees to share their mobile phones. SMS messages can be read and replied to directly from within 3CX. Incoming messages are assigned to a queue and monitored and replied to directly by your staff. SMS technology can also be used in marketing to boost business and drive customer engagement
Customer Satisfaction:
A modern VoIP Phone system from 3CX gives your business a host of tools to effectively manage your customers' enquiries, not just over the telephone but also via call management, SMS messaging, and live chat. These tools all contribute to optimising and fostering strong customer relationships, ultimately leading to higher customer satisfaction.
5. Technical Aspects and Integration
Security and Reliability:
Your 3CX system from Leap IT also comes with our baseline security policies to protect you from breaches such as Toll Fraud and unauthorised access.
Toll Fraud is when a hacker compromises your VoIP phone system, which then makes international calls to the hacker's number, generating hundreds of pounds of call charges against your business. Our Toll Fraud is an AI-based function that monitors "unusual" behaviour across your VoIP system and disables the system when issues are found.
We also apply a baseline spend limit on all your outgoing lines that raise an alarm on our Helpdesk if these thresholds are passed.
These ensure that your business can trust that your system is protected around the clock and reflect LeapIT's focus on safe and dependable solutions.
CRM Integration and Compatibility:
Our 3CX solution also integrates with several mainstream CRM systems, allowing your staff to access customer records automatically when an inbound number from one of your existing clients matches it.
This delivers increased efficiency throughout your business applications, allowing queries to be processed quickly and effectively. Below are some of the CRM systems 3CX is compatible with, including the market-leading HubSpot.
Deployment Options:
Depending on your preference, 3CX can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud. All our cloud deployments are hosted on a secure SSL login using Debian software, which is highly secure and less vulnerable than traditional Windows-based operating systems.
However, we can also host the 3CX system on your internal servers as either a Virtual machine or a Physical Server, again using Debian software.
Technical Aspects and Integration:
Our 3CX phone system is compatible with industry-standard SIP trunks (Session initiation protocol) that can be increased or reduced. SIP trunks replace the need for physical phone lines from BT that were previously needed in your office.
SIP trunks, on the other hand, are "virtual" telephone lines that run through your office Internet Connection. We can advise on the number of SIP trunks you need depending on the number of calls you feel you could take at any one time,
Modern VoIP systems offer significant advantages over traditional, outdated PBX systems, including scalability, answer anywhere, advanced call routing, call recording, and call centre features not available on PBX systems.
6. Making the Right Choice
Evaluating Providers:
Leap IT has been providing VoIP Phone systems to existing and new clients with great success for over 10 years.
Leap IT is an IT Provider through and through VoIP phone systems run on your existing IT systems, which makes this more of an IT requirement than a telecoms requirement.
Having your phone system and IT with the same provider is highly efficient and removes the blame-shifting that often exists when businesses have multiple suppliers.
Comparing Alternatives:
The market is awash with different VoIP providers and VoIP systems, including Hi-Hi, Horizon Gamma and Ring Central, to name but a few.
However, Most other VoIP systems adopt a per-extension-per-month model with a fixed monthly cost for each extension.
Any new users incur additional monthly charges, which are in a never-ending subscription model.
3CX is not like this. It allows you to purchase your phone system outright and avoid lengthy 3-, 4-, or 5-year contracts.
Alternative VoIP systems to 3CX are more expensive in the long run and less flexible regarding the fixed price that 3CX delivers.
3CX also incorporates CRM integration and can be extended into door access systems that handle traditional reception roles. Mobile apps also extend your phone system to the field and work-from-home requirements.
7. Cost and Plans
Understanding Pricing:
A 3CX phone system is unique in that adding new users to an existing system does not incur an additional charge.
Instead, 3CX pricing is based on a simultaneous calls model where you buy the 3CX software licence depending on the number of calls across your business at any one time.
For example, if you have around 30 employees and calculate there will be no more than 8 calls active on the system at any time, you would buy the 3CX 8SC software licence.
If you need extra capacity, this can also be upgraded anytime your business grows.
Most businesses opt for the 3CX Standard Licence, which is packed with all the features a modern business would ever need in its phone system. The Professional and Enterprise versions of the 3CX software deliver more advanced features for larger organisations, including failover, Voicemail Transcription, Hotel features, and Web Conferencing for 100+ seat deployments.
8. Ideal Users
Who Benefits Most:
3CX is the market leader in VoIP Phone Software, with over 5 Million users worldwide. It is a cost-effective solution for start-ups, SMEs and larger enterprises with specific requirements. It is an out-of-the-box solution, whatever size of organisation you are running.
9. Implementation and Support
Getting Started:
Leap IT has been successfully installing VoIP phone systems for over 10 years in over 200 organisations. Our experience migrating businesses to a modern VoIP phone system is invaluable to ensure a smooth transition with no outages. Our 3CX VoIP system can sit alongside your traditional PBX system without interrupting your business and allowing you to go live at a time and point that suits your business.
Ongoing Support:
All our 3CX deployments are managed by our expert Helpdesk at Leap IT, with all our technicians cross-trained in IT Support and 3CX VoIP support. This means help is available quickly from a single source for both your IT and Telecom issues as they arise. All our VoIP Support Contracts include changes to the system at no extra charge as your business evolves and removing and adding new users to the phone system as required, all at no extra charge.
10. Conclusion
A 3CX phone system from Leap IT comes with expert setup, management and ongoing support conveniently from a single supplier. 3CX is a fully integrated unified communications platform that gives your business access to a host of modern features, including video conferencing, webinars, advanced call routing, auto attendants and out-of-hours messaging services
If you would like a demonstration of our 3CX phone system or just a rough cost to deploy 3CX to your organisation, please get in touch using the form here.
