Monday 29 July 2013

Get the Cost Savings of SIP using PRI Auto Dialers

Many call centers have already made the transition to SIP Trunking and are realizing tremendous cost savings with this newer technology. But the question you might be asking is how can I take advantage of the cost savings of SIP Trunking when I'm not ready to get rid of my PRI dialer? And that is a great question. With the proper bandwidth in place and an interface device called a SIP Gateway you can take advantage of the cost savings of SIP Trunking that will convert the SIP dialtone into PRI signaling and still retain using your PRI dialer without having to invest money into a SIP Dialer. You will also realize another tremendous benefit since most SIP carriers are not charging short duration penalties.

If you're asking yourself so what is all this going to cost me compared to what I'm paying now that's a great question as well. If your call center is beyond about five or six T1s you really are at the point where bandwidth becomes a lot more cost-effective than the monthly loops that you're paying for your T1s. So on that component of the equation for the SIP trunking solution in many cases it's going to cost you less than what you're paying right now on the bandwidth alone. After that your only other true costs to be concerned with is the cost of the Gateway and the cost of installation through either your own internal IT department or if you have to hire a third-party IT company.

Most call centers that are dialing several hundred thousand minutes per month and especially those who are dialing millions of minutes per month are going to realize tremendous cost savings with SIP Trunking over traditional PRI long-distance services. So whether you buy a new, refurbished or used SIP Gateway your ROI in most cases it is going to be just a few months based on the savings with your long-distance minutes charges.

In addition, with SIP Trunking there's other cost advantages by having multiple carriers and using Least Cost Routing to provide the lowest cost in each region where you're making your calls. This is something that your IT department that manages your Dialer can implement or there are third-party providers that have least cost routing services that will accomplish this for you.

In the past call centers utilizing PRI were able to realize some level of benefit with Least Cost Routing by using one carrier to cover for example one region of the country and another carrier for the rest of the country. But with SIP Trunking the benefits of Least Cost Routing is much more diversified than in the past. For example, you now can use Least Cost Routing for every type of call, any kind of landline, every cell phone number, VOIP numbers, regions controlled by large incumbent providers such as AT&T or Verizon, smaller regional operators, or rural telcos.

The level of sophistication has been taken to a new level and call centers can reap the same benefits that in the past only the carriers could do who utilized complex Least Cost Routing. The same is true for utilizing SIP Trunking with nationwide DIDs. Using nationwide DIDs increases your answer rate or ratios which translates into more sales and revenue. This will also translate into higher return calls which is another reason how SIP Trunking will increase your revenues, improve your marketing campaigns for those who do not make a purchase through your call center on the first or second contact.

So what are the steps involved you may ask? Let's examine a case study as an example to go through the steps of converting to SIP Trunking but yet retaining your PRI Dialer. Call center Resilient Marketing had been utilizing PRI carriers for the past 10 years at the point they decided to take a look at SIP Trunking. They had 12 long-distance PRI T 1's in place and at a cost of $180 per month per T-1 PRI Loop their monthly spend on the loops alone was $2160. For the conversion to SIP Trunking project they found a 20 MB Ethernet solution for $929 per month. So before they've even made their first call they are already over $1200 ahead in the black.

Their Call Center consisted of about 100 agents, even though all seats were not filled up completely every single day. Their call volume fluctuated between 600 to 800,000 minutes per month. Their current provider averaged about a 1.8 cents per minute charge, so their monthly usage bills before taxes rangedfrom about $11,000-$14,000 per month. So on the high end, between the loops and the usage their bills were around $16,000 before taxes. Add another $3200 in usage taxes and their total monthly spend was about $19,200 on the high-end per month.

They selected a SIP Gateway that could handle four PRI's per Gateway at a cost of a little over $4000. For three of these the upfront investment was $12,000. After deciding on three main SIP providers and utilizing least cost routing their usage per minute rate dropped from 1.8 cents per minute in the PRI environment down to just a little over.007 cents per minute with SIP Trunking. New total monthly expenditures were then $5600 on the high-end for usage plus $929 for the 20 MB Ethernet pipe and about $860 in taxes. Lower taxes are also another benefit with SIP Trunking which can be anywhere from 5 to 10% lower than traditional PRI services.

The bottom line comparison on a high-end month had dropped from $19,200 down to $7391. Their ROI for the SIP Gateway was just a little over a month factoring in the cost of the hardware purchase, taxes and installation. Over time they found that their answer ratios improved, the number of sales improved, and long-term responses improved because callback ratios had also increased which helped their e-mail Drip campaigns to become more effective and long-term funnels filled up also as a result of the changes made.

Depending on where your call center is located there will be situations where you may not find cost-effective bandwidth as low as this example but every day more and more businesses are seeing that T-1 copper technology is being quickly replaced by more cost-effective technologies not only for voice but also for bandwidth and data needs.


For more information on SIP for Call Centers please visit us at https://www.nurango.ca

Introduction to SIP Trunking - What is it anyway?

SIP trunking employs PBX to let businesses to work with VoIP as well as other real-time communication methods. The SIP trunk can be plugged into a traditional telephony network, allowing organizations to speak with people outside of the local network by IP technology. SIP trunking likewise allows all telephone communication to pass through a solitary avenue, consequently minimizing cost and raising the stability of the connection. This is excellent for small enterprises that were previously not able to afford unified communications technology while offering a massive boost to business continuity.

SIP Trunking: How Exactly Does it Operate?

SIP Trunking operates by integrating voice and data communications into something which can be performed over a single line. SIP trunking forms a bridge between the business's internet connection and the conventional phone line to enable a data network to carry voice traffic.

To illustrate, picture that an employee located in San Diego needs to make a phone call to their headquarters in Manhattan; they utilise the office telephony system as normal. The call is changed into an Ip call (or stems as one, based on the system used to place the call), and travels the majority of the distance over the IP network. It then falls into the PSTN once it reaches its destination. Why is all of this worthwhile? Simply because the call cost is merely a small fraction of a regular long-distance phone call. These savings can really accumulate for companies that produce a lot of long distance phone calls.

Can SIP Trunking Help with Business Continuity?

So long as your SIP trunk is set up properly, it can be more dependable than, for instance, a standard ISDN connection. The main factor here however, if you'd like to increase your business continuity, is to make sure the SIP trunk is established properly. For maximum consistency, you will need to ensure you have a direct link to your trunk service provider. You will additionally need some kind of failover connection. If you aren't positive whether SIP will work for you, there are hybrid alternatives offered.

Transferring to SIP Trunking

There's an up-front expense to implementing SIP Trunking. This is to pay for a direct link to your trunk provider. Without it your call quality will be affected. Additionally, you will need to invest in a SIP gateway. However despite this initial charge, it won't be that long before you recover the fee on telephone calls, line rental costs and data connection.

Thinking long term you'll make substantially more cost savings, especially if your business grows. ISDN lines are confined to 30 channels per circuit, but SIP is completely scalable, so you'll have the capacity to keep expanding your existing setup without the need to fork out for additional lines.

This scalability is fantastic for small companies, as they don't have to dedicate themselves to services that they're going to rapidly grow out of, or shell out for technology which is beyond what they need, just in case they need it at some point.

For more information please check out our SIP Trunking options at https://www.nurango.ca

Tuesday 19 February 2013

How Does SIP Trunking Compare to Hosted VoIP?

Because of the flexibility of VoIP, there are many implementations that can be used depending on the circumstances and the preferences of the entity that wishes to set it up. In some cases, organizations might already have existing infrastructure that is geared towards IP communications without possessing a full-fledged VoIP system. These businesses might wish to leverage their capital investment in order to create a more advanced network that is able to communicate with the outside world. For such organizations SIP trunking is a useful option. So what exactly is SIP trunking?

The phrase derives from the setup where all the heavy lifting is done not at a third-party like an Internet telephony service provider, but at the site of the client itself. The necessary hardware for processing VoIP calls and handling inbound IP communications already exists at the site and all that's needed is an Internet pipe or "truck" that interfaces with the VoIP Gateway allowing the organization to make use of its hardware to connect to the PSTN system. There's quite a lot of debate as to which system is better - SIP trunking or hosted VoIP. The truth is that hosted VoIP is more convenient for those who are new to SIP communications and don't want to take on the hassle of purchasing managing and maintaining expensive VoIP hardware.

But there are some large companies who prefer to have everything under their own control. Such firms probably have their own data centers which they can easily make use of to take on the additional load of VoIP. Going down this path certainly has its benefits in terms of privacy in that your data doesn't have to pass through the hands of a third party. There is also a bit of extra flexibility as clients can tweak and change their configurations depending on the requirements. The flexibility and privacy however come at a cost.

Those opting for a hosted VoIP setup need not distract the focus of their business from their core activities. Managing and hosting VoIP hardware is no joke and it requires a dedicated team of IT professionals who know what they're doing in order to keep it running smoothly. The capital costs are significant along with the danger of obsolescence. After all, how many companies even own their own Web server? Not many. The trend these days is all towards outsourcing nonessential technologies to expert third parties. The same is true with hosted VoIP.

If you have existing IP hardware and want to know how you can extend it to communicate with the outside world, contact your ITSP to find out more. If however you'd like to go with a hosted PBX system, find out how you can get started in less than 15 min.

https://www.nurango.ca/

Can an Enterprise also Benefit from SIP Trunking?

Enterprise SIP Trunking

In enterprise voice communications, SIP trunks sets the new standard. Carrier voice networks have been using digital voice services for 45 years, and now you can use this open IP standard to connect all of your locations. With SIP trunks, you combine your voice, internet, and WAN traffic over a single IP connection. SIP trunks help you to reduce the costing, increase productivity, and boost your network capacity.
 

From a small business connected with a managed ADSL connection, to a multi-site enterprise linked by VMPLS, SIP trunks can meet your requirements. They can be used with your existing IP-PBX, or combined with an optional hosted PBX for a completely integrated solution. The productivity advantages with SIP and SIP trunking are also considerable. You can extend the SIP capabilities of the corporate network outside the LAN, satellite offices, remote workers and even customers can use VoIP and other forms of realtime communications applications to break down hindrance of geography to share ideas and increase productivity.


 You will always prefer nurango Telecom's Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunking service that will significantly reduce your costs for long distance calling. A (SIP) trunk is a service that allows businesses that have a conventional phone system installed to use Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) to communicate outside their enterprise network using their existing broadband connection. SIP is a signal transmitting standard used by voice equipment makers to interoperate impeccably with customer premise equipment (CPE) such as IP PBX phone systems. You can cross point legacy phone systems with a SIP network by using, an Integrated Access Device (IAD) or gateway. By using nurango Telecom's services for your long distance phone calls, you can take advantage of our global reach, buying power, and proven track record of quality and stability.

The real benefits of nurango Telecom's SIP trunking are as follows: Reduce Costs - You will see an immediate service cost reduction when you move to SIP trunking, and eliminate the need for separate voice and data circuits. Share Your Resources - SIP trunking lets you share your entire line capacity seamlessly across all of your locations.

Burst Capacity - nurango Telecom SIP trunking lets you buy channels for your average use, instead of your peak.

Number Mobility - The numbers we assign to your SIP trunks are not limited by location. You can get the numbers from crossways the country ring to a central location. Also you can use a collection of numbers to follow the efficiency of marketing hard work.

Compatibility - nurango Telecom SIP trunking is compatible with all popular IP-PBX systems, including systems from Aastra, Cisco, nurango Telecom, and Microsoft Lync.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking uses the voice over IP (VoIP) to smooth the progress of the connection of a private branch exchange (PBX) to the Internet. In effect, the Internet replaces the traditional telephone trunk, which allows an enterprise to communicate and operate with fixed and mobile telephone subscribers worldwide. In order to take the benefits of SIP trunking, an organization must have a PBX that connects to all internal end users, an Internet telephony service provider (ITSP) and a gateway that actually serves as the interface between the PBX and the ITSP. One of the most important advantages of SIP trunking is its capability to merge data, voice and video in a single line, removing the need for separate physical media for each mode. The result is reduced and maintained overall cost and improved reliability for multimedia services. With SIP trunking, subscribers can grab the following advantages:  National Coverage - Our network is one of the largest of any IP carrier in Canada, we can provide numbers from 1,049 cities across Canada. If you have locations outside of the major metropolitan areas, we may be the only one that can service all of your locations. You can find our full footprint on our website, and we are always adding new locations.

Carrier Quality - Our geographically diverse network creates the redundancies necessary for enterprise telephony. Our infrastructure resides in our private cloud in four data centres, located across the country. Our core switch, the same used by Europe's largest carriers, is 4X redundant and capable of 5 million call setups every second.

Priority Routing - Making sure your data takes the shortest path is a big part of insuring voice quality. Our peering agreements give us priority routing with all of the major Canadian carriers, and we actively monitor your traffic's path for any changes.

 SIP Trunking also offers organization a number of benefits over traditional analog or digital PRI connections. An organization can lower its costs, by carrying voice traffic over an Internet link. You can migrate from PSTN to SIP trunks, however, which involves more than simply including and adding a few more voice channels. nurango Telecom offers SIP trunking that meets the voice and unified communications needs of the organization and has the ability to work in partnership with the networking team to guarantee a protected and quality connection to Internet-based VOIP services.

 

Thursday 4 October 2012

How New SIP Trunks Extend Old Phone Systems

Got an old phone system you can't afford to replace just yet?

How can you take advantage of VoIP savings when upgrading your existing phone system appears to be such a complicated and expensive task?

I've run into many cases where a business has an existing PBX or Key System that they don't want to replace or perhaps they are not ready to upgrade. Changing voice or data network services can often be a challenge. Most people just want these types of things to be functional and to WORK. They want to place and receive calls reliably. They want their Internet to be fast and UP. Who doesn't? However with a knowledgeable telecom consultant, the transition from legacy, to latest-and-greatest can be much easier to deal with.

Carriers can now provide SIP trunking and Internet access over a single T1 with minimal expense. By replacing an existing Voice T1/PRI (or Integrated Access T1 ~aka~ dynamic/flex T1/PRI) with an entirely SIP enabled voice system, the total average monthly spend can be greatly reduced. Businesses can also have remote users added to the new system, as well as 'out of rate center' users because the technology is VoIP- portability of phone numbers becomes far more accessible. This feature also helps reduce internal communication costs while providing one bill across the entire enterprise.

In some cases it makes sense to have SIP trunking as a business continuity plan. If you must retain your existing TDM based phone system, SIP provides an inexpensive fail-safe option. Technologies now exist that allow you to have redundant SIP network access over traditional wireline Internet and in tandem with 4G wireless broadband. With it's failover/failback capability, the SIP connection automatically switches to a secondary wireless connection when your primary service is interrupted. Once service is restored, the connection will automatically failback to the primary connection- keeping your business online with minimal interruption.

In summary of two main solutions:

1. Individual/stand-alone SIP trunks over your existing bandwidth (aka "BYOB" Bring Your Own Bandwidth). This is the preferred option if you have a dedicated IT person or staff, and want to provide your own management from equipment to network, etc.

2. Or the carrier-managed option, which is more of a complete turn-key solution including everything needed to get up and running: SIP Trunks, IP phones, IAD (Integrated Access Device), QoS (Quality of Service) management, and of course Internet bandwidth.

With SIP trunking, you can continue to use your existing phone system, while taking the first step to achieving future unification of all your voice and data systems across all your business locations.

Choosing the Best SIP Trunking Provider

If you want SIP Trunking in place in your company for many of its benefits, you need to hire the services of an SIP provider. If you already have a PBX system installed, you might want to know that SIP trunking allows more efficient and cheaper use of your PBX. However, with the demand of this methodology, there are now a number of SIP providers all claiming to provide the best services possible. How do you look for the SIP provider to hire? Here are some practical tips you can follow:

1. Look for an SIP Trunking provider within a considerable distance from your company. When it comes to services like this, distance may make a difference especially in terms of accessibility. SIP providers within considerable distance should be able to respond to you should there be any problems.

2. Look for a provider that has significant experience. Experience in SIP is also important when choosing the right provider. This methodology can considerably be complicated especially when more complex telecommunication systems are involved. It is then imperative to choose one that have enough experience to handle your needs, no matter how complicated it can become.

3. Check for reviews, recommendations and ratings. If you know a company other than yours that has just recently installed an SIP system, ask them if they can recommend their SIP provider to you. Moreover, if you have an existing PBX or VoIP provider and you are quite happy with their services, you can ask them if they can offer you SIP Trunking as well. If they don't offer this technology yet, you can ask them for recommendations instead. It is important that you deal with a reputable company that is well-esteemed and recommended by people in the business.

4. The SIP Trunking provider must provide service that suits your company's budget. It will make sense if you only choose services that best suits your company's needs and budget. However, you must consider that SIP trunking is an investment that offers significant returns. Oftentimes in SIP services, cheap doesn't always mean best. This goes without saying that you must assess the quality of their services against their charges and rates. What you need is a company that offers value for the money you pay them.

Above all, make sure to use your intuition when choosing a good SIP provider. Do not simply rely on appealing offers that seem too difficult to resist.

This VoIP technology belongs to a group of breakthrough communication technologies available today to companies large and small. Companies like yours must take advantage of this technology that allows efficient communication lines within the company and with your clients even from the other side of the world. Choose your SIP Trunking provider well and enjoy the benefits that these telecommunications solutions can provide and more.

The Advantages of SIP Trunking

One of the growing forms of technology today in business is known as VoIP SIP trunking. It is important to know exactly what trunking SIP refers to and what it means. SIP stands for Session Initiation Protocol and is a form of communication that is set up over the internet between your location and an internet telephony service. Then, a trunking VoIP or SIP provider will then transfer your SIP calls to your network and allow you to use your VoIP phone system to communicate. There are many different real benefits to this form of communication including the ability to save a great deal of money as well as added conveniences. It is important for a business to have reliable uninterrupted and effective means of communication. Many companies are unable to keep this kind of communication open and in the end, they end up suffering. Luckily, the newest STIP and VoIP technology serves as a solution. Now, companies can experience fast, efficient and reliable trunking SIP communication at an extremely cheap rate. There are even great international VoIP services and SIP trunking services that cost the same as a local call! This is a great way for a company to be able to expand on to the international market easily and effectively. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has allowed businesses to revolutionize the way they communicate. Now, VoIP in business has become extremely effective. It has enabled businesses to make calls over an internet connection cheaply or even free of cost to anywhere in the world! Employees can make calls from home or from work or anywhere they have a VoIP or SIP adapter. There are many different VoIP services providers available that allow for SIP for VoIP that have many different packages that can be customized to meet your business's needs. Many business owners are scared to make the final change over to a strict VoIP business system. This is where trunking VoIP or a SIP trunking service is also added in. This SIP service allows a company to maintain and preserve their traditional PBX system while it is being hosted by a VoIP service. Overall, the benefits of SIP VoIP service are immense. The following are just some of the many advantages of using SIP trunking VoIP: Business VoIP SIP reduced the cost of communication immensely. This is because it can turn all of your calls, even long distance calls, into local calls. This happens because your calls travel and transmit over the internet and not the phone line. This eliminates all long-distance calls. Trunking SIP also reduced the cost of voice and data connections and allows you to use both forms of communication together. Trunking VoIP allows for cheaper international calling, making it accessible to any business. SIP and VoIP allow for the communication to grow alongside a business without any additional investments. A business VoIP SIP is huge in capacity and able to serve an entire business of any size, even those with multiple locations across the country or even internationally. No inconveniences associated with pesky wires and bundles!

SIP Trunking can be a cost effective manner for staying in touch with your clients locally and abroad. If you're looking for SIP Trunks for your business visit https://www.nurango.ca/voip/sip-trunking