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by Bob Zanett, Mike Reilly, Grant Sainsbury - June 22, 2011

The pragmatic benefits of SIP trunking for contact centers
by Bob Zanett, Mike Reilly, Grant Sainsbury

It’s not new, but it is clever. Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking has been around for over a decade and is already widely used for communication by companies across the world. Built on an IP backbone, SIP trunking allows companies to replace traditional fixed lines with connectivity from a Service Provider delivered as a data circuit over the Internet. Through simplifying complicated infrastructures and driving costs down, companies are looking at how SIP trunking can help drive further business through their contact centers.

Offering significant cost savings by eliminating the need for local gateways and costly interfaces, SIP trunking is an effective solution for companies wanting to use their traditional telephony networks and communicate over IP, both within and outside the enterprise. As heavy users of voice infrastructure, contact centers also enjoy the benefits of SIP trunking in uncomplicated communication infrastructures and reduced telecommunication costs.

Businesses are also under rising pressure to extend their reach beyond local markets to stay competitive. However, the stark reality of high communication costs means many companies are unable to tap into these markets. To access global customers, organizations have to be able to maintain contact centre phone lines and support calls. It is for this reason that SIP trunking is proving to be a valuable alternative.

A business model shift
Traditional telephony has always involved the physical laying of copper lines that are carried into a business to support a call. Using SIP, these physical lines are being replaced by a new model using virtual IP to IP calls.

SIP is moving into a new, more commercialized era. While it’s been around for a while, SIP is the main protocol used with presence and instant messaging (IM) – Microsoft’s Office Communicator (MOC) in particular or the new SIP interface for the Skype network – using video and voice. In fact, without realizing it, people use it in everyday communication. We are seeing a serious shift for SIP into the business world.

A new era for business communication
SIP is opening up a broad range of opportunities for businesses and contact centers alike. Carrier companies have been using it in the back end for a long time. Now, the technology is evolving to a point where we can use one signaling protocol from end to end. While it’s typically being used for voice and video now, the future possibilities are endless. SIP is open and flexible and once companies have overcome the interoperability challenges between two different set ups, transfers will be seamless.

The fact that SIP is scalable helps keep costs down and improves an organization’s response to market conditions. Because it’s a flexible solution for handling calls, instead of having to order more lines and pay for them year round, companies can simply modify their bandwidth to cater for peak or seasonal call flows.

For seasonal companies that do most of their business over particular periods in the year, SIP trunking delivers incredible savings. By being able to change their requirements ‘on the fly’ to adjust to an increase or decrease in calls, companies now only need pay for what they use.

Traditional telephony meant only being able to handle one call at a time. Prospective customers would get a busy tone if they called at a peak time - clearly a situation any company would like to avoid. With an IP based solution, organizations could license a certain number of lines and then ‘burst’ to cope with more calls as needed.

In addition to being able to handle multiple calls on one line, SIP helps centralize multiple remote sites in businesses. Centralizing them virtually and scaling back the physical lines to reduce wastage results in a reduced infrastructure and lower cost. SIP technology can deliver this benefit without sacrificing on opportunities to reach a global market.

Opening up the market
Some of the top geographical challenges for businesses in reaching wider markets include determining how to cost-effectively market to dispersed customers. In the past, many companies have offered local or toll free numbers. However, typical listings in the yellow pages will require hundreds of local numbers to distribute to all the areas, and the associated costs can be prohibitive for some companies. For multinational companies reaching large markets, buying and supporting these lines may well be affordable. But it’s a different story for a smaller regional company wanting to go after a bigger market. SIP trunking is different. With data connectivity, organizations can receive calls that originate anywhere for the cost of a local call or cheaper.

The next hurdle in managing many different contact numbers involves routing calls to call centers in other areas. Companies need to either get their customers to call another number (which is very hard to do) or forward the calls on to that center. This translates into higher service costs and more reporting challenges as they are unable to track and trace who was dialing. The dial plan design offered through SIP trunking is more manageable for organizations. Directing these numbers to one central location is infinitely easier to manage. SIP allows for the provision of local and toll free numbers that can be routed through one location to the business. Using the principles of virtualization, customer calls are picked up by new generation SIP carriers and, transferred to the business, saving money and delivering simpler operations.

A host of benefits
In addition to being cheaper and simpler to manage and maintain, SIP enables better collaboration. Limited only by the amount of available bandwidth, companies are supporting more remote teleworking and saving money by using SIP on the back end for phone calls. And with more people using their PCs and video for communication, more personal interactions can significantly improve collaboration between companies, their staff and their customers.

Companies can realize another benefit in call recording. In the past, recording had to be tied to physical lines and was a costly infrastructure to support. Because SIP rides on an IP data network, businesses can simply record and listen to inbound IP calls for less without being bound to phone lines.

In addition, SIP trunking is driving more competition for carrier service providers – which in turn means more choice for businesses. Companies can now choose to work with multiple vendors and carriers, giving them better control over costs and how they route their calls.

Through the chasm
The benefits offered by improved Business to Business (B2B) collaboration and simpler technology are helping companies reach their customer base simply and effectively. Past interoperability issues between companies are being ironed out and quality of service continues to improve and is already very good with data and video. Working with a systems integrator like Dimension Data can ensure effective implementation of SIP and help realize specific objectives within the organization’s communications and contact center strategy.

We are entering a new era in communications through SIP trunking. Moving away from an old business model, companies can now be more flexible and responsive to their markets while enjoying a large business feel. Through better communication infrastructures, organizations can begin to reap the rewards of cheaper access to a global market.

Authors:
Bob Zanett, Solutions Architect, Customer Interactive Solutions, Dimension Data
Mike Reilly, Principal Consultant, Customer Interactive Solutions, Dimension Data
Grant Sainsbury, Practice Director, Customer Interactive Solutions, Dimension Data
The authors can be reached by phone at (919)791-1055.

Dimension Data is a multi-billion dollar IT services firm with a focus on planning, building and supporting contact centers at some of the world’s leading organizations.