PBX companies will fall over themselves to sell your business a switchboard system, and traditionally these have come in “block sizes” of four, eight or 16 lines, and so on.

With the advent of cloud-hosted PBX services, things have become slightly more customer centric, and you can now often buy a discrete number of “user licences” … you are, however, still prompted to buy “packages” of user licences, and “bundles” of minutes to get lower rates. But unless you manage to use these all up completely, you will end up getting stung for the unused part, commonly and euphemistically called “breakage” by telecoms companies. (The only thing that usually breaks here is your budget.)

Learn more about NoPBX

The new kid on the block in the switchboard market, NoPBX, plans to change this.

NoPBX’s service offering is already a huge divergence from traditional PBX technology, in that NoPBX runs entirely on smartphones (the connectivity device of choice) and uses pure GSM calls for connectivity, not complicated voice-over-data streams (that are prone to call quality failures).

In fact, NoPBX is less like the new kid on the block, and more like the new species on the block.

NoPBX has seen rapid growth in user numbers since its launch in October 2020, and one of the key learnings from this so far is that there is an enormous pool of small businesses that run from a single line or cellphone. As much as they would benefit from a PBX system, they are too small to justify one under the pricing strategies of the usual providers.

That’s the point

But how can a single line be a PBX, you might ask? That’s exactly NoPBX’s point — it isn’t really right now, but very soon, if things go well, the owner of a single line business is going to need more users, more lines, and so on.

NoPBX’s unique architecture and fully distributed approach to providing service can reinvent the way of looking at a one-line business, and so it has come up with a unique pricing model, which is perfect for single-line businesses. The business reasoning behind this is that because a single user “PBX” does not make use of any PBX features, the price for a one user service can be greatly reduced.

A one user “PBX” on NoPBX will cost only R65/month (excluding VAT). This includes a business number (087 or geographic, or port your own number in), completely free inbound calls direct to your mobile, the NoPBX smartphone app to make outbound business calls, company voicemail, and all associated with the NoPBX call services (apart from multi-user features like call transfer).

It really is a no-brainer for a small business, as operating from your personal cellphone is neither professional nor practical. But perhaps the best thing about using a NoPBX for your small business is agility — you can upgrade to multiple users at any time with a few clicks of your mouse, while keeping your same business number. Full multi-user switchboards start at R220 (excluding VAT) per month for two users, R285/month for three users, R350/month for four users and so on — a compelling proposition for a cost-conscious business.

Another benefit of NoPBX is that it works perfectly anywhere there is a GSM voice signal, no data required, and there are no charges to transfer calls between users, no matter where they are in the country. Your users are therefore always in touch when they need to be and can be free to work from wherever they wish — brilliant for consultants, drivers, salespeople and anyone else out and about for a lot of the time.

Trabel, makers of NoPBX, maintain that it is the simplest cloud-hosted PBX in South Africa, the easiest to set up, the quickest to set up, the easiest to manage and has the lowest total cost of ownership. Now it is the best option for single-line businesses, too — an instant online solution for starting up fast, scaling fast, or just wishing to contain costs and look professional.

For more information, or to trial a NoPBX solution today free of charge, visit www.nopbx.co.za.

About Trabel
Trabel is a South African technology development company founded in 2019, based primarily in Cape Town and operational throughout South Africa. NoPBX is a cloud hosted PBX-over-GSM solution, with Android and iOS connectivity. More information can be found at www.trabel.co.za and www.nopbx.co.za.