The investment small businesses make in their IT and communications solutions represents a considerable chunk of their budget. In the past, where on-premises infrastructure was the norm, they could only afford the bare minimum to continue their operations. However, we now live in a world where hosted services is giving small businesses the same technological access as large enterprises. Uniden (News - Alert) America Corporation, manufacturer and marketer of wireless cordless telephones, business telecommunications systems and consumer electronic products, has announced the launch of the first complete hybrid phone communications system for small businesses.

According to the company, the Uniden Office Express (UOE) 1600 is the only system that currently uses cordless and corded VoIP phones, supports both traditional and VoIP lines, integrated Wi-Fi and firewall, and easy plug-and-play setup.

For Uniden this represents a great opportunity to address businesses with 2-50 employees because of the quick and easy setup the UOE offers out of the box with its plug-and-play configuration. As IP and hosted communications solutions increase in adoption, telephones that are able to address the old and the new give businesses more options.

The UOE phones have the latest VoIP technology engineering capable of supporting up to 20 telephone lines, with eight standard PSTN and 12 Uniden Office Express VoIP. Additionally, 50 corded or cordless Uniden Office Express VoIP telephones can be added to give small businesses features that are usually available in large high-end communications systems.

The company claims it can deliver an average savings of 60 percent compared to traditional business phone systems.

“This new hybrid telephone system was designed to transform small business telecommunication,” said Brett Morrison, vice president of business communication solutions at Uniden. “The Uniden Office Express 1600 can be set up right out-of-the-box with the system already configured and ready-to-use, removing the traditional installation and programming steps and related charges that can quickly double or triple your total costs for a phone system.”

The features of the UOE integrate today’s mobile culture by providing simultaneously ringing office and cell phones. Additional features include auto attendant, complete voicemail system with 60 hours of message storage, one-touch recording of “live conversations,” caller ID, voicemail to email notification, system-wide paging, and multiple music-on-hold options.

Small businesses don’t have to pay a license fee and they can keep their existing number, and when they are ready to grow, phones can be added easily. Each system is shipped 100 percent configured, so all you have to do is just plug it into your existing network and your system is up and running.