SIP trunking has resulted in cost reductions of 70% for at least one organisation, according to a top US commercial IT executive.
Answering questions at the recently held US telecommunications industry seminar, Enterprise Connect, vice president of communications architecture for Unified IT Systems, Sorrell Slaymaker, said that the 70% savings figure was one he had personally witnessed.
Slaymaker added that although savings for other organisations that he had come across were more modest, they still averaged between 45 and 50%.
Slaymaker was leading a special session in which strong interest was being expressed in the cost-savings potential for SIP trunking.
SIP (session initiation protocol) trunking is a mechanism whereby existing internal business phone systems are linked up to the internet. The cost savings opportunities provided by SIP trunking reside largely in the fact that business calls made over the internet (also known as business VoIP – or voice over internet protocol) are often a lot cheaper than those made over conventional telephone lines.
Among the organisations represented at the seminar already working on establishing SIP trunking for economic reasons was George Washington University, where an initial test system is in place.
Slaymaker however warned that an extremely careful analysis of a particular organisation’s existing network set-up should always be undertaken prior to committing to the installation of SIP trunking.
In particular, according to Slaymaker, where a phone system has been in use for a number of years and among many staff members, it can take a while to identify and cancel out all the old phone connections.
As well as offering personal tips such as avoiding voice compression as it ‘risks degrading voice quality’, Slaymaker added that where in doubt about the reliability of their internal telephone networks, companies should always opt for the services of an externally managed system.
