We’ve become so reliant on collaboration technologies like Zoom, Webex and Teams that many companies now consider them business critical. Vital to ensure they’re able to take orders, sign contracts and engage in all important ‘face-to-face’ meetings. For all of these technologies, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking is fundamental to enable voice calling. At the moment, any pre-existing legacy systems can still be integrated. But this is set to change, as we’re fast approaching a huge shift for voice infrastructure.
Traditional legacy infrastructure is soon to become redundant as PSTN and ISDN is phased out, in fact we’re switching ours off in 2025. It was once sufficient to connect legacy voice systems to collaboration tools by adopting local voice gateways on premise and taking on the added maintenance costs. But in light of the upcoming changes, this strategy is short sighted and costly. It will pay to accept that a full transition to an IP-based system is unavoidable and make the shift sooner rather than later. In fact, our customers find the typical cost reduction of adopting global SIP is around 45% compared to using a legacy voice estate. Embracing a SIP solution that’s compatible with multiple in-market and emerging cloud platforms like Teams, Zoom, Webex calling, and other entrants should help to maximise your migration. This will provide forward thinking flexibility if you need to roll out new tools or adapt to work with different technologies.
You’ve more than likely experienced frustration over disrupted calls and degraded voice quality at some point during this past year. When talking to suppliers or important customers, jittering and delayed voices are understandably stressful, as low-quality communications can really affect your business. The situation gets worse if you then fail to get the support you need, suffering long waiting times or being passed from department to department. Comparing the variety of SIP providers, often lower cost alternatives don’t have a service element included. If something breaks you might even struggle to get somebody to help with your complaint. Plus, when it comes to performance, voice quality differs considerably, particularly when delivering SIP over the internet. A partner who can guarantee consistent levels of quality, on hand support at all hours and fast response times is critical.
Initially, it can be tempting to use a different domestic SIP provider in each region to save costs. But taking a broader view by finding a single partner with strong global coverage will make your life a lot easier in the long term. Using a string of local solutions can create challenges. For a start, exploring and negotiating the options in each region is a time-consuming process. And then, if there’s a fault, tracking down the root cause of your problem can be a tedious process of elimination between all of your providers. And, on top of that, there’s the added burden of the ongoing management of all of these suppliers and procurement costs.
Multiple providers will no doubt create concerns for your cybersecurity team too, as each SIP partner opens up your corporate network to another security policy. Most security departments will disapprove of the added complications and vulnerabilities that juggling partners will bring into your network. Simplifying your strategy will be hugely beneficial. The benefit of using a global solution is that you’ll have a single overarching security policy and one point of contact across all countries.
Our Global SIP services are available in 25 different countries and will transform your legacy voice estate into a service fit for the future. By using one provider across multiple regions, you’ll experience the benefits of a single security policy and centralised control across the globe. We understand just how critical voice services and consistent performance are for effective communications. Plus, we’re already connected for voice enablement to an array of cloud platforms, including Teams, Zoom, Webex calling and Cisco HCS. If you’d like to find out more about how we can build a partnership, please ask to speak to one of our experts.
