A 3CX phone system is a PBX, which stands for Private Branch Exchange. This is a private telephone network used within a business. The users of the PBX phone system can communicate internally (within their company) and externally (with the outside world), using different communication channels like Voice over IP, ISDN or analogue. A 3CX also allows you to have more phones than physical phone lines (PTSN) and free calls between users. Additionally, it provides features like transfer calls, voicemail, call recording, interactive voice menus (IVRs) and call queues.
Time and technology have changed the consumer telephony landscape in the past years, with the flag-bearer being the Open-Standards-based IP 3CX. Now you can telephone via the Internet Protocol technology. 3CX phone systems are available as hosted or virtual (cloud) solutions and as on-premise solutions on your own hardware.
This image gives us an idea of what a 3CX system allows in terms of connectivity and reachability. With a traditional PBX, you are typically constrained to a certain maximum number of outside telephone lines (trunks) and to a certain maximum number of internal telephone devices or extensions. Users of the PBX phone system (phones or extensions) share the outside lines for making external phone calls.
Switching to a 3CX brings many benefits and opens up possibilities, allowing for almost unlimited growth in terms of extensions and trunks, and introducing more complex functions that are more costly and difficult to implement with a traditional PBX, such as ring groups, queues, digital receptionists, voicemail and reporting. C2 Communications relies on 3CX, as it has established itself as the leading IP-PBX manufacturer, ticking all the checkboxes for any business looking for enterprise-grade features.
