How to Set Up a Cloud Call Centre in Ghana: Cloud vs PBX

GAGodwin AmefiaJune 8, 202614 min read

Cloud contact centre vs PBX: office desk phone and PBX unit beside a laptop call flow and headset

If you are working out how to set up a cloud call centre in Ghana, the sequence is: choose a plan by how many calls you need to carry at once, get a number, build your call flow, set up routing, add your agents and test before the number reaches customers. Your existing office number cannot move onto Arkesel’s VoiceConnect platform, but it can stay in use with its current carrier and stay on your marketing materials for as long as you want it there.

A PBX (private branch exchange) is the phone system that connects your office extensions to outside lines. Arkesel’s VoiceConnect Ghana page describes the difference this way: a PBX is hardware you buy, install and maintain, and VoiceConnect is a service you subscribe to. VoiceConnect, Arkesel’s cloud IVR (automated call menu) and contact centre platform, covers Ghana. For a wider introduction, read our cloud contact centre guide for Ghana.

What does an on-premise PBX cost compared with a cloud contact centre?

A PBX puts more of your spending into equipment you buy and maintain, while a cloud contact centre turns the platform into a subscription. That difference in shape is what a cloud vs premise-based contact centre comparison can establish before you have quotes. Whether one costs less overall depends on your equipment, your carrier contracts and the plan you need, so compare your own figures.

Put these costs side by side:

Cost to compare	On-premise PBX	VoiceConnect
Equipment	You buy and install it. Ask your vendor what an upgrade or replacement would involve, and when.	No PBX hardware to buy. Desk phones are optional.
Upkeep	You maintain it. Ask how much of that work falls on your staff and how much on the vendor.	Part of the service you subscribe to.
Numbers and connection	Ask what your carrier contract covers and how long it runs.	In Ghana, Arkesel supplies them.
Capacity	Ask what adding lines or extensions would take.	Set by your plan’s concurrent-call limit.
Your old line	Stays as it is.	If you keep it, you keep paying its carrier.

To see what each plan includes, compare VoiceConnect plans.

When does keeping a PBX still make sense?

A PBX can remain the better choice when one of these describes your business:

You bought it recently and it is doing its job.
You have a duty to keep equipment on your premises. Check your regulatory and contractual obligations before moving call handling to a hosted service.
Your internet is unreliable where agents work. Agents need a stable connection on a cloud platform, so fix that first or keep the PBX at that site.
You run one line with no queue. A full call centre platform may be more than you need if no one has to route, supervise or report on calls.

How do you set up a cloud call centre in Ghana?

Work through these seven steps in order.

Step 1: Choose a plan by concurrent calls

Count the most calls you expect to be in progress at the same moment during your busiest period. That figure, your concurrent calls, is how to read the live-agent plans listed on Arkesel’s VoiceConnect page:

Plan	Concurrent calls	Numbers included	What the plan adds
Starter	1	1	Your first live agents
Growth	3	1	Call recording and reports
Business	5	1	Outbound campaigns, voice surveys and supervisor tools
Enterprise	10	1	The full platform, including API access and AI call analysis

Call recording and reports begin at Growth, and supervisor tools start at Business. Every plan includes the IVR builder, call routing and the softphone. Agent and concurrent-call limits change only by changing plan. Ask the team for a quote on that plan, confirm its agent limit and raise any peak above 10 concurrent calls.

Step 2: Decide which channels sit alongside voice

Work out whether you need more than calls right now. Arkesel’s Ghana page lists SMS, email and USSD beside voice, plus WhatsApp and live chat if you use KOVA IQ. One Arkesel login reaches them, but each product has its own dashboard and billing.

VoiceConnect is separate from Arkesel’s Voice SMS and Voice API products, so check which product a feature belongs to.

Step 3: Get a number, starting with a standard one

Take the number your plan includes, then decide later whether you also need a toll-free one. In Ghana, Arkesel supplies the numbers and the connection, so there is no carrier or trunk to arrange before you go live. A trunk is the carrier capacity a phone system would otherwise connect through.

A toll-free number lets callers reach you on a single number without paying for the call, according to the NCA’s FAQs. Arkesel’s Ghana page says most lines do not need one and that a standard number goes live faster. The same page says toll-free ranges need approval from the National Communications Authority, that Arkesel prepares the application while the approval stays with the regulator, and that you can add a toll-free number later without changing the rest of your setup.

Our guide to the NCA toll-free application process covers the detail.

Step 4: Build your call flow

Lay out what callers hear and press in the visual builder, including prompts, menus and business hours. This is your IVR (interactive voice response).

Your own service manager can build and change the flow, or Arkesel’s team can set it up with you during onboarding. Either way, it stays editable without a developer. You can offer prompts in any language by uploading an audio file for each prompt, so an English and Twi menu needs a recording of each. Our IVR call flow blueprint goes through the design.

Step 5: Set up queues and routing

Decide which agents take which calls, then configure that in the platform. VoiceConnect has four routing strategies: round robin (agents take calls in turn), longest idle (the agent free longest answers next), skills-based (calls match agent skills, with proficiency levels for language, product and technical skills) and sticky agent (callers return to the agent they spoke to last). Confirm the strategies you need when you choose a plan.

Decide too what happens when every agent is busy. The platform supports hold announcements and voicemail overflow. Name the person who returns missed calls and voicemail.

Step 6: Add your agents

Invite each agent, then have them take a test call on the device they will use. Arkesel’s Ghana page describes how you invite your agents by email, after which they receive a sign-in and SIP credentials. SIP is the standard internet phones use to connect.

According to Arkesel’s VoiceConnect page, the softphone (a phone that runs as software) works in the browser with nothing to install. An agent who prefers a desk phone or a separate softphone app can register that device with the same credentials. Agents need an internet connection wherever they take calls.

Step 7: Test before you publish the number

Run the whole flow as a caller would before the number reaches customers:

Call from each mobile network your customers use, such as MTN, Telecel and AT.
Try every menu option, in and out of business hours.
Make blind and warm transfers between agents. In a blind transfer the call goes straight across, and in a warm transfer the agent speaks to the colleague first.
Let calls overflow to confirm what happens when every agent is busy.
Review sample recordings, if you are on Growth or above.
Practise silent listening, whisper coaching (speaking to the agent alone) and barge-in (joining the call), if you are on Business or above.

For what to measure once calls are live, see our guide to call centre quality monitoring.

Can you keep your existing office number?

Yes. An existing number cannot move onto VoiceConnect, but you can keep it in use with its current carrier, indefinitely. That number is familiar to customers and may already be on your marketing materials, which is reason enough to keep it. Cancelling it is optional.

What differs is how a call to that number reaches your agents:

A mobile number: forward it to the number Arkesel provides. Check with your network how to set up forwarding and what forwarded calls cost.
A landline: it reaches VoiceConnect only through a bridge, a connection between the line and the platform. Arkesel can look at this for you. A bridge is scoped case by case and involves additional integration and setup, so nothing is promised until that is done, and your line should carry on working as it does today in the meantime.
A number on your PBX or SIP trunk: a Ghana business can connect an existing PBX or SIP trunk as a scoped project with Arkesel, in which the number can stay in use with its carrier.

If you want to explore a bridge or a PBX connection, describe your setup to Arkesel and ask for it to be scoped. Bring the number, its carrier, the line type, any PBX make and your busiest period.

If you want to keep the number but drop the PBX, raise that with Arkesel before you switch anything off, and ask whether it can work for your setup.

How do you move from a PBX to a cloud call centre without cutting customers off?

Test the new setup fully before any caller reaches it, and keep the old line working throughout. A published new number runs side by side with the old one. Forwarding a mobile does not: from that moment every caller on that number goes to VoiceConnect, and your way back is switching forwarding off. Neither route guarantees that every call connects.

Copy your IVR scripts, routing rules, extension lists, recordings and contact lists out of your current system.
Set up and test your VoiceConnect number using the steps above.
If you may retire the old number later, decide how many calls a week would be low enough.
Ask your carrier or PBX vendor for the count of calls to that number, if you set that level.
If yours is a mobile number, ask your network how to switch forwarding off again.
When you are ready for every caller to move at once, and your plan’s concurrent-call limit covers that number’s busiest period, forward the mobile number to the VoiceConnect number.
Call the old number from another phone to confirm the call reaches an agent, and switch forwarding off if it fails.
If yours is a landline or PBX, keep it working as it is while any bridge or connection is scoped.

If your old number already forwards or connects, publishing the new number is your choice.

If your old number does not forward or connect, the old line keeps ringing where it does today and someone must still answer it, unless a bridge or connection is done. No customer call reaches VoiceConnect until a bridge, a connection or a published new number exists, so publish the new number when you want customers to start using it.

Whenever you publish it, start with one branch, campaign or customer group, and fix what you find before extending the change.

If you plan to keep the old number and calls to it now reach your agents, you are finished.

If you choose to retire the old number

Do this only if you have decided you no longer want the number, and only once all four of these are true:

Test calls on the new number are complete.
The new number has replaced the old one on everything you control, such as your website, listings, signage, invoices and staff signatures. Calls will keep coming while the old number remains in front of customers.
Calls to the old number, on the count from your carrier or PBX vendor, have fallen to the level you chose. If you did not choose one, choose it now and count from then. If neither can give you a count, keep the number.
If you asked Arkesel about a bridge or a PBX connection, that conversation has finished and you have its answer.

A cancelled number may be gone for good. Forwarding also runs only while the old mobile number stays active, so cancelling it ends the forwarding, and a bridge or PBX connection stops working once the line it depends on is cancelled. Those points are our reasoning from how a line and its forwarding work, so confirm them with your carrier. When the conditions above are met, work in this order:

Take a fresh copy of your IVR scripts, routing rules, extension lists, recordings and contact lists.
Ask your carrier what happens to the number after cancellation, and check what else uses it, such as a mobile money wallet or WhatsApp account. If either answer makes you unwilling to lose it, stop here and keep it.
Cancel the line with your carrier.
If you are retiring your PBX as well and no line, extension or scoped connection still depends on it, switch it off.

Do you have to switch everything at once?

No. You can put one new team, branch or campaign on a VoiceConnect number and leave the PBX carrying everything else. Unless you scope a connection between them, treat them as two separate phone systems. If you would rather link them, raise the PBX or SIP route above with Arkesel.

Who is accountable when the line goes down?

Responsibility follows each part of the service:

The platform: Arkesel runs VoiceConnect on infrastructure built for enterprise-grade reliability and high availability, and Arkesel is ISO 27001:2022 certified.
Agent connections: you are responsible for the internet connection at each place your agents work.
An old line you keep: a fault on that line sits with its carrier, by our reasoning, because the carrier still provides it.

Before you commit, ask what support applies to your plan and how you report a fault.

Cloud contact centre vs PBX: should you switch?

Switching is worth a serious look when several of these apply:

Your PBX is due for an upgrade or replacement, or you have been quoted for one.
Your agents work across branches or from home, and each location has a stable internet connection.
Your busiest period fits within a plan’s concurrent-call limit.
You want self-service menus, call reports or outbound dialling, keeping in mind that reports start at Growth and outbound campaigns at Business.
You want calls connected to your other customer systems, which our contact centre CRM integration checks help you assess.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep my office number when I move to a cloud call centre in Ghana?

Yes. It stays in use with its current carrier and can stay on your marketing materials. It cannot move onto VoiceConnect. A mobile number can forward to the number Arkesel provides, while a landline bridge or a PBX or SIP connection has to be scoped with Arkesel first.

Does a cloud contact centre cost less than a PBX?

That depends on your situation. A PBX concentrates spending in hardware you buy and maintain, and VoiceConnect is a subscription. If you keep your old line, you also keep paying its carrier. Compare your own quotes.

How long does it take to set up a cloud call centre?

Arkesel’s VoiceConnect page says setup takes days rather than months, because there is no hardware to procure and no phone system to install, and that a demo gives a realistic answer for your own call flow. Toll-free approval, a landline bridge and a PBX connection are separate from that estimate.

Do I need a toll-free number for a call centre in Ghana?

Not necessarily. Arkesel’s Ghana page says most lines do not need one. You can begin on a standard number and add toll-free later, subject to NCA approval.

What is the difference between a cloud PBX and a cloud contact centre?

A cloud PBX is a phone system for making and receiving calls, hosted online rather than in your office. A cloud contact centre adds tools for handling calls as a team. In VoiceConnect’s case those are call menus, routing, softphones and, depending on your plan, recording, reports, outbound campaigns and supervisor tools.

See VoiceConnect on your own call flow

Take your call flow, your existing number and your busiest period to the team. Talk to the team to see VoiceConnect on your own call flow.

How to Set Up a Cloud Call Centre in Ghana: Cloud vs PBX

How to Set Up a Cloud Call Centre in Ghana: Cloud vs PBX

What does an on-premise PBX cost compared with a cloud contact centre?

When does keeping a PBX still make sense?

How do you set up a cloud call centre in Ghana?

Step 1: Choose a plan by concurrent calls

Step 2: Decide which channels sit alongside voice