[GeoffP]

Something to consider when going with a hosted PBX service is that you are dependent on the reliability of the connectivity to the hosting company (in addition to the hosting company itself). In most cases (or at least in Georgia) you're dependent on the telco (AT&T) to provide this connectivity unless your company owns its own WAN (Wide Area Network). It's not a big deal when everything works find, but in the event of an outage you are completely dependent on the service provider to fix the problem and get your service restored. Again this isn't that big of a deal unless the service provider has multiple issues (like during a big thunderstorm). I can tell you from experience that no service provider is going to give your connectivity priority over their own especially during a large outage, so you can rest assured that you're going to get 2nd rate service at best even if the contract says the restoration requires "best effort" service. I do my best to bring as much as possible in house because I can almost always do the job of a third party cheaper and more reliably. My experience has shown that the cost savings from out sourcing almost never seem to materialize in the real world environment.