What is a Private Branch Exchange (PBX)?

A private branch exchange (PBX) is a private phone network used within a company or organization. The primary function of a private branch exchange (PBX) is to allow employees to connect with each other internally as well as make and receive external phone calls. In addition to this, private branch exchanges (PBXs) can also play a recorded greeting for inbound callers, queue callers until someone is available, forward and transfer calls, and enable conference calls.

Original versions of private branch exchanges (PBX) used copper wires and analog technology, which had some limitations. Now, many PBXs use voice over IP (VoIP), which provides more flexibility. One of the advantages of VoIP is that now organizations can have their private branch exchange (PBX) hosted in the cloud versus on premises. This can be a more cost-effective model for many businesses.

Private branch exchanges (PBXs) are sufficient for most businesses, but call centers need something more robust - automatic call distribution (ACD) systems. ACD systems can do everything PBXs do, and more. For example, they allow agents to take calls from multiple phone queues. Plus, many of today's ACD systems can route not just calls, but also contacts from digital channels such as chat, which is important given customers' omnichannel expectations.

How NICE can help

NICE is the market leader in providing customers the cloud contact center software they need to deliver consistently exceptional customer experiences. Benefits include:

• Modern ACD providing digital first omnichannel routing and increased business agility
• Integrated and comprehensive workforce management solutions to engage and empower contact center agents to achieve business goals
• Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to enhance the customer experience and automate routine agent tasks
• Omnichannel customer journey management

CXone provides an intelligent, unified suite of applications covering the breadth of contact center management disciplines, simplifying administration and streamlining the user experience.