In one of my earlier posts, I explained the difference between the Key Telephone System and the PBX Phone System. I am sure you have a clearer picture on the key difference between the two.

To recap for my next bit on PBX systems….The Key Telephone System is best suited for small businesses, ranging between 3 - 8 Outside Lines or CO Lines,and 3 to 25 phone sets or extensions, or Internal Lines. Reason being, all the Line Buttons can be available on all the phone sets for easy access to any outside line to any internal extension.

A side thought…a lot of new business phone system users tend to refer to phone extensions as “phone lines”. This does lead to misunderstanding between the client and the interconnect company i.e people like us who provide office telecommunications service to you.

A desk phone in a PBX phone system environment, does not have Line Buttons or CO Buttons. It has one or more Intercom buttons.

The phone user is restricted to using just the one phone that is assigned to him/her.
It is not required to answer phones ringing for anybody else. It is not required to put calls on hold or transfer calls to anybody else.
Typically this is seen in bigger offices having more than 8 Lines and 25 phones/users, where you have a live operator who does handles general calls, and each employee working in that office is required to answer calls specifically directed to them. A call centre is also another good example where PBX systems are common.

I am sure you have come across a situation a call centre agent you have been talking to, does not have the ability to transfer calls to anybody else or sometimes even the ability to call you back in case of a dropped line.

But a phone users in a PBX phone system environment have the ability to answer multiple calls directed to their phone, by having more than one Intercom buttons on their desk phone. And they have to dial 9, generally, to make outgoing calls.

By dialling “9″, the phone user gets access to one of the idle outside lines or CO Lines, for dialling to the outside world.

PBX phone users, cannot put a call on hold and expect another phone user in the office to pick it up. They have to either transfer the call, if they know the extension number of the other party, or Park the call, which is an easy procedure, only of you have practiced a few times to actually get the good understanding of how it works!

This is the main reason why business phone users in a small business environment should avoid using PBX Systems if it is important for them to be able to “see” all their outside lines or CO Lines on all the phones.

The only reason you would buy a PBX Phone system for your office is when :

1. You dont care about having line presence on all the phones, and wont need to do much call transfer or call hold for another person in the office.
2. All you need is to dial out and get calls ringing to your phone.
3. You need a phone system for the auto-attendant and voice mail features
4. You need a phone system that you can manage by yourself, without having to call in a technician to make basic changes to your business phone system.

Most IP or VOIP phone systems are PBX type. Newer systems are able to provide buttons on IP Phones for short cuts to dial each extension in the office and get a indicator light if the phone extension is busy i.e another phone user is busy on a call.
But they cannot provide Line Presence Button for each outside line.

Of course, you can have more than one Intercom buttons on your phone, which gives you the ability of being able to take or make more than one call. ( But again, this is not the same as actual Line Presence Button.)

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