the sip trunking complete buyer’s...

AN ALLSTREAM eBOOK THE SIP TRUNKING COMPLETE BUYER’S GUIDE 1

2015 Edition

An Allstream eBook

The SIP Trunking Complete Buyer’s Guide


The SIP Trunking Buyer’s Guide

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3

1. Getting Started: SIP Trunking 101 .................................................................................... 4

An Overview ................................................................................................................................. 5

The Business Case ...................................................................................................................... 9

The Leading Benefits of SIP Trunking .................................................................................... 10

Technology Options ................................................................................................................... 14

Business Continuity for Your SIP-enabled Network ............................................................. 16

2. Getting Ready for Deployment ...................................................................................... 18

Are You Ready for SIP Trunking? ..............................................................................................19

SIP Trunking Pilots and Rollouts .............................................................................................. 20

The 5 Biggest SIP Implementation Mistakes .......................................................................... 21

What to Look for in a Vendor ...................................................................................................23

5 SIP Trunking Considerations to Maximize ROI .................................................................. 25

3. Resources ................................................................................................................................. 26

The Top 7 Questions about SIP Trunking ................................................................................27

Case Studies: SIP in Action ....................................................................................................... 29

Why Allstream .............................................................................................................................33

2015 Edition


Introduction:The New Way To Think About SIP Trunking

For some time now, technology market research firm Forrester has been asking large enterprises the same question every year: “What are your firm’s plans to adopt SIP trunking services?” It wasn’t until 2015, however, when the answers started to look a lot different than they ever have before.

More than 35% of those surveyed said they were either implementing or expanding SIP trunking, a 10% jump over the previous year. To Art Schoeller, principal analyst at Forrester, that’s significant. “The only line on the bar graph that shrank was those who were not interested or had no plans,” he said during a webinar that went over his report’s findings.

That momentum may be explained in part by the fact that organizations are starting to realize SIP trunking may be just the first step in a real transformation of their business, Schoeller suggested, rather than a quick fix to their communications problems.

“People tend to focus on bringing the past forward,” he said, putting off more strategic benefits of new technology and focusing on solving a smaller pain point instead. “They look at what I call the good old ‘lift and shift’ as opposed to ‘lift and transform.’”

For example, early adopters of SIP trunking were probably concerned with cost savings, flexibility and robustness of their communications infrastructure. Those are all sound reasons to move away from PRIs, but that’s not where the story should end.

“SIP can be more than a simple replacement for TDM,” an article on No Jitter noted. “SIP does not make dial-tone sound better. If you are going to go through the work of converting to SIP, you want something to show for it.”

For example, SIP trunking may soon be better known for providing disaster recovery, cloud call recording and on-demand provisioning than simply providing basic communications services. Provisioning unified communications without the overhead could also become a major driver, according to Schoeller.

All these possibilities make it a good time to offer a revised edition of this eBook, which was first published in 2012 when the market was still nascent. Along with new case studies and updates on Allstream’s products and services, we’ve included highlights about SIP trunking from expertIP, the online community where we cover the news, trends and best practices surrounding IP communications.

We hope this eBook continues to not only educate those new to SIP trunking, but to help those who have started the journey to build upon their early success. If you’ve managed to “bring the past forward,” by leaving TDM behind, this could be the moment where you truly transform your organization for the future.

By Shane Schick

“Organizations are starting to realize SIP trunking may be just the first step in a real transformation of their business.”


Getting StartedSIP Trunking 101

1.

“SIP is a profound change and it breaks the mould of 100 years of phone service. With SIP, phone numbers are no longer tied to fixed locations and circuits, allowing greater speed and flexibility in configuring a phone network. This lets a company respond faster to growth or changes in its market and have more comprehensive contingency planning.”

Bruce McKay, Solution Marketing Manager, Allstream


An OverviewMost businesses run standard PBX or key systems that are supplemented by trunk side access services purchased from traditional telephony providers (also known as TDM trunking). T1, PRI, BRI and analog lines typically handle voice traffic to and from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

In this situation, businesses must manage each voice and data connection and network separately. This separation creates the need for multiple infrastructures, cabling systems, maintenance processes and subscription fees. Running multiple networks also results in a high degree of inflexibility, as the networks don’t work with each other to help businesses scale and adapt to new technology.

Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking uses IP and Internet technologies to converge voice and data traffic over a single network. It allows businesses to connect an IP PBX to the PSTN via a service provider IP access circuit. As a result, businesses will no longer need traditional PSTN circuits. Just one IP access can handle a variety of communications, including voice, data and Internet traffic.

“Although cost reduction is important, sometimes it’s not the primary driver – a lot of companies want to take advantage of advanced communications technologies.”Melanie Turek Industry Director, Information Communications Technologies, Frost & Sullivan


Why Choose SIP Over Traditional TDM?One of the biggest challenges with PRIs is that having separate voice and data networks adds cost and complexity compared to SIP trunking, where early adopters have already seen an average of 40% savings on telecommunications. PRIs also have some critical limitations, including the requirement of a PBX and the purchase of a PRI at every branch location, where capacity is capped. PRIs also tend to be available in increments of 23 channels. That means requiring just one more means buying another set of 23.

SIP trunking, on the other hand, offers the more simplified approach of one network to handle both voice and data, scaling up as you need with centralized PBXs and trunk pooling to share capacity across locations. For IT departments, SIP trunking represents a more evolutionary transition, but with greater reliability. Whereas it can take hours to restore service in the event of PRI failures, for example, SIP trunking allows automatic routing from one location to another. Most important of all, SIP trunking goes beyond the standard voice quality of PRIs with high definition voice for IP to IP calls.

40%early adopters of SIP Trunking have already seen an average of 40% savings on telecommunications


Typical SIP Implementation ScenariosThe diagrams below depict a typical SIP trunking implementation for a single site location and a business with multiple locations.

Single Location Business With Internet Access: Before

Before: Office computers and telephones run on a LAN, with a data connection to the Internet and voice to the PSTN via a PBX.

After: Telephone calls are now made through the Internet, which is connected to the PSTN and out to the world via a SIP trunk. You no longer need a dedicated voice connection to the PSTN, reducing costs, simplifying network management time and maintenance, and increasing efficiency.

Single Location Business With Internet Access: After

PBX

Internet Access

Local Access/PRI

LAN

PSTN

Internet

PBX

Internet + Voice

SIPTrunking

LAN

PSTNInternet


Legacy Access Configuration

Before: Office computers run on a LAN, with a data connection to the Internet. Telephones are connected to a PBX, which in turn is connected to the PSTN via a separate PRI circuit.

After: The SIP Gateway provides the PRI trunk circuit to the existing PBX. Telephone calls are now made through the Internet, which is connected to the PSTN and out to the world via a SIP trunk. You no longer need a dedicated voice connection to the PSTN, reducing costs, simplifying network management time and maintenance, and increasing efficiency.

Shared Access using SIP Gateway

Before: Multiple offices connected by a data network, with each location managing its own connections to the Internet and to the PSTN through multiple PBXs. Voice and data are run over separate networks, leading to duplication of equipment and connection points.

After: An IP VPN has been deployed, simplifying the network, controlling costs and improving business flexibility. That data network is then connected to the PSTN via a SIP trunk, eliminating the need for PBX connections at each office. The data network now carries voice traffic, with business continuity through automated failover capability in case of network failure.

Multi Location Business: Before Multi Location Business: After

PBX

Head Of�ce

Data

Data

Data

LAN

PBX

Branch Of�ce

Internet

Internet

Internet

Business Lines

PRI

PRI

Small Of�ce

PSTN

Data Network

Internet

PBX

Internet Access

Local Access/PRI

LAN

PSTN

Internet

PBX

Internet + Voice

SIPTrunking

LAN

PSTNInternet

PBX

Head Of�ce

Voice & Data/Internet


LAN

PBX

Branch Of�ce


Small Of�ce

PSTN

IP-VPN

Internet


The Business CaseThis low-tech video has taught more than 230,000 people about SIP trunking

It’s eight minutes long with questionable production values, but presenting this YouTube clip could convince almost anyone that the time for a new kind of voice has come.

The lighting’s not great. The audio is, well, audible. It’s a little long and there aren’t so much as opening titles or end credits. And yet this is probably the most popular backgrounder on SIP trunking that’s ever been created.

First uploaded almost four years ago, the clip was created by Michael Cavanaugh. His YouTube channel doesn’t offer much of a bio, but we’ve tracked down the details. He’s a Cisco certified instructor who has co-authored a number of technical exam guides, though it’s not entirely clear where he’s based in the U.S.

You could easily critique the clip’s production values, but apart from a compelling and search-friendly title, Cavanaugh’s video works because it’s as accessible as having a live person in a boardroom walking through the basics of SIP to almost any kind of audience.

Most network admins have grasped the potential of SIP trunking by now, but this kind of explainer could be what gets a transformation project green-lit by the CIO or senior management. Consider sharing it as a way to get the conversation started.

Click to view video

http://www.allstream.com/products/ip-connectivity/sip-trunking.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/michaeljcavanaugh?feature=watch

http://www.amazon.ca/Cisco-Certification-Telephony-Self-Study-Edition/dp/1587201240

http://www.amazon.ca/Cisco-Certification-Telephony-Self-Study-Edition/dp/1587201240

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9cT1Lq9Lg8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9cT1Lq9Lg8


The Leading Benefits of SIP TrunkingSIP trunking can help unify your communications to give you a tremendous competitive advantage. Companies using legacy networks risk falling behind competitors that have upgraded to SIP, because traditional telephony cannot deliver the many benefits of SIP trunking. Legacy networks also have limited call redirection capabilities, which increases the threat of downtime that can cripple your business.

“Many companies are now going global, when five years ago, they didn’t have the technology to be global, this makes them look at their technology infrastructure and ask how they can enable communications in a way that makes them more productive.”Melanie Turek Industry Director, Information Communications Technologies, Frost & Sullivan

Here are some of the key benefits of SIP:

1Perhaps the biggest benefit of SIP trunking is that it substantially improves business flexibility. Because SIP trunking is not tied to specific locations, it allows you to maintain a virtual presence in any area where your provider offers service. For example, if your headquarters are located in Vancouver, but you want to launch a marketing campaign in Montreal, you can use Montreal phone numbers even if you do not have an office or telephone lines there.

When you open a new office, you can activate telephone numbers for that region before the site opens. SIP trunks may be used to consolidate all of your switches into one or two physical locations so you don’t need to buy voice circuits in every city where you have an office. This provides you with a faster time-to-market and is a cost-effective way to build a presence in a new location before you are up and running.

Improve Business Flexibility


3 2 4 SIP trunking provides an optimized environment for advanced unified communications capabilities by eliminating many of the inefficiencies of traditional TDM telephony and PRI circuits and streamlining the integration of voice with other network applications. With a SIP infrastructure in place, an enterprise can simultaneously deploy UC apps like presence, instant messaging, video-conferencing, common virtual white-boarding and more, maximizing UC capabilities and bringing significant productivity gains.

SIP also helps provide the cross-functionality necessary to extend UC solutions to the devices that employees are using at work and bringing to work. SIP trunking can even extend some UC applications such as presence beyond the LAN. For instance, with a SIP-enabled network in place you can configure presence to reveal the status not only of coworkers, but also clients and partners outside the organization. The potential for efficiently converging advanced communications capabilities onto a single IP network is so great that many technology manufacturers are developing their future UC and collaboration applications to run over SIP-enabled network infrastructures.

In today’s mobile economy, employees rarely spend all of their time at the office. According to Frost & Sullivan, 85% of companies have remote employees. SIP trunking gives you the technology to support your remote workers while maintaining a professional presence. For example, a customer can call a remote employee’s single reach number, and the call will automatically be routed to the employee’s cell phone. This makes it look like your remote workers are in the office, even when they are working from home.

Enabling employees to work remotely can also help you save on office space and equipment, as you won’t need a phone line or desk for everyone in your company.

A key driver that propels businesses towards SIP trunking is cost savings. Converging your voice and data onto one network allows you to cancel subscriptions to multiple voice circuits, which results in significant savings on long distance and hardware costs. For instance, using SIP trunking eliminates the need for every location to have a PBX. You can further control costs by buying only the bandwidth you need and sharing it between voice and data. Free long distance and trunk pooling can bring even greater savings.

Maximize Unified Communications Performance

Support Your Remote Workforce

Reduce Costs


6 5 SIP trunking allows you to centralize business continuity and disaster recovery. When a traditional network is interrupted, you must manually re-route it. With SIP, if the power goes down in one office the network can automatically redirect calls to another site without disrupting business. Because SIP trunking vastly reduces the need to have hardware at all locations, phone service is also more reliable as potential points of failure are eliminated.

SIP trunking is an enabling service that consolidates networks and lets them work together. By centralizing your voice and data, you can eliminate excess equipment, make your network more efficient and spend less time on management.

Strengthen Reliability

Enhance Network Productivity

“SIP provides a basis and framework to go way beyond just voice, as people look at unified communications and ways to expand how they do business – through things like video and collaboration – an IP infrastructure that utilizes SIP helps to make that happen.”Grant Bykowy Director, Voice and IP Communications Strategy, Allstream

SIP trunking can also enhance the return on your existing investments. When businesses that have invested in IP networking technology adopt SIP trunking, they achieve a number of cost and efficiency benefits that can accelerate the payback on those investments.


➔ Try this convenient ROI calculator

➔ Watch this video to learn more about the business benefits of SIP trunking

➔ More benefits of SIP at allstream.com

➔ Watch the The IT Manager’s Guide to Voice and Data Convergence webinar

➔ Download this free Allstream white paper on best practices for deploying UC with SIP

Related Resources

http://www.allstream.com/resources/sip-trunking-roi-calculator.html

http://www.allstream.com/resources/video-why-sip-trunking.html

http://www.allstream.com/products/ip-connectivity/ip-trunking.html

http://www.allstream.com/resources/webinar-the-it-managers-guide-to-voice-data-convergence.html

http://www.allstream.com/resources/white-paper-best-practices-for-deploying-unified-communications-together-with-sip-trunking.html


Equivalent Unified Communications functionality and PSTN interconnection can be provided using different deployment models – which can be selected based on the customer’s need or preference. The two models that Allstream supports are a customer purchased system deployed at the customer’s site, or a fully hosted based system deployed in Allstream data centres. Each deployment option has the following benefits and can be selected based on customer preference.

Customer On-site model

➔ IP PBX can be located in customer’s data centre

➔ IP PBX is typically purchased by the customer (suitable if customer has capital budget)

➔ Customer controls software maintenance and upgrades (or outsources maintenance)

➔ Customer controls SIP trunking design and deployment

➔ Control over PBX environment to allow integration to other applications

➔ Virtual IP PBX is located in Allstream data centre

➔ Customer can subscribe to Hosted services on a per-month basis (suitable if customer prefers an opex model)

➔ Allstream manages all software maintenance and upgrades as part of the service

➔ Allstream manages SIP trunking as part of the service

➔ Fully separate Virtual PBX instance allows integration to other applications

Hosted Model

Technology OptionsSIP and UC (On-Site) vs. Hosted (Cloud)

PBX

Internet + Voice

SIPTrunking

LAN

PSTNInternetPBX

Head Of�ce



LAN

PBX

Branch Of�ce


Small Of�ce

PSTN

IP-VPN

Internet


The benefits of a SIP trunking solution are available to users whose equipment supports SIP protocol or ISDN PRI protocol - including free Canada calling, access to all local exchanges, and the ability to share a data access. This means all users of both legacy PRI and IP enabled PBX equipment can benefit from the cost and productivity savings made possible by SIP trunking.

Native SIP

➔ Interfaces with IP enabled PBX using SIP protocol

➔ Reduced PBX interface hardware costs

➔ Fully supports all SIP-based signaling

➔ Utilizes a shared data connection to reach the PSTN

➔ Supports free Canada calling

➔ Interfaces with PBX using ISDN PRI protocol

➔ Suitable for legacy TDM PBX environment

➔ Supports ISDN based signaling

➔ Utilizes a shared data connection to reach the PSTN

➔ Supports free Canada calling

SIP Gateway

Native SIP vs. SIP Gateway

PBX

Internet + Voice

SIPTrunking

LAN

PSTNInternetPBX

Head Of�ce



LAN

Branch Of�ce


Small Of�ce

PSTN

IP-VPN

Internet

PBX


Business Continuity for Your SIP-enabled NetworkSIP trunking lets you centralize your business continuity and disaster recovery facilities, greatly improving your ability to keep your business running during a crisis or outage and enabling faster recovery times. Like any technology, SIP trunks can be disrupted by outages or disasters, but with an effective business continuity plan in place, you can continue to communicate internally and to your customers, partners and suppliers even when those trunks are affected.The diagram to the right illustrates a typical SIP trunking-based enterprise communications network protected by key business continuity features that guard against SIP trunking connectivity outages. The enterprise operates one headquarters and two branch locations. Its main connection to the PSTN is through SIP trunks that connect to a service provider’s network that provides Wide Area Network (WAN) connectivity for all three locations.

The implementation scenario depicted in the diagram can be expanded to incorporate multiple branch offices without changing any of the key features.

Backup PRI Link

FXO Line

Service ProviderNetwork

(MPLS or Internet)

Location AHeadquarters

Primary VoiceGateway (SBC)

CarrierGrandSwitchIP PBX

Location BBranch Of�ce

SurvivableGateway

FXS line

Basic PhoneLocation CBranch Of�ce

IP PBX

10MbpsEthernet

10MbpsEthernet

10MbpsEthernet

Primary 8IP trunkingconnection running

on WAN link

Backup SIP trunkingconnection (activated onlyif primary connection fails)

PSTNBackup VoiceGateway (SBC)


Service Protection FeaturesProtection in case of inaccessibility of a service provider voice gatewayThe SIP trunks typically connect to the primary voice gateway implemented through the deployment of a session border controller (SBC). Should the primary voice gateway become inaccessible, SIP traffic is rerouted to the backup voice gateway, also implemented through an SBC. The service provider will typically place the backup SBC in a different geographical area and will work with the customer to ensure that failover to the backup SBC and fail back to the primary SBC takes place automatically.

Protection in case of loss of IP connectivity at the headquartersIn the diagram, the enterprise headquarters is connected to the service provider network through a 10Mbps Ethernet connection. If the connection to the headquarters fails, the SIP trunks are engineered to terminate using the backup SIP trunk connection to the IP PBX at location B.

The PBX at location B will then control all voice communications for locations B and C. At the headquarters, the enterprise can still connect to the service provider through a backup PRI connection.

When a backup PRI is not available, other strategies to provide redundancy for the SIP trunks may be employed. In this case, the SIP trunking connectivity may be protected, together with other data applications, through the availability of a secondary WAN access connection. To ensure maximum diversity, the secondary WAN connection should use a different access technology (wireless, DSL, Internet) and in some cases a different service provider.

Protection in case of total loss of IP connectivity at a branch locationLocation C does not have an on-premise PBX. During normal operations all SIP terminals (phones included) are registered with the IP PBX at the headquarters and rely on that system for call routing and processing. If the WAN connection at location C fails, a survivable gateway device that interfaces between SIP terminals and the WAN can act as a mini-PBX to register local SIP terminals and to process local calls. The connection to the PSTN is maintained through an FXO line that is connected to the survivable gateway.

Protection against loss of powerIf electrical power is lost at location C, the survivable gateway can provide a “fail to wire” FXS interface that allows the connection of a basic telephone set. This phone set can then be used to make basic calls to the PSTN by using the FXO line. In many cases the survivable gateway and the edge router are implemented on a single device allowing for a very simple deployment.

For more information on protecting your SIP-enabled network against an outage or disaster, download this free Allstream white paper.

http://www.allstream.com/resources/white-paper-business-continuity-protection-for-sip-trunking-service.html


Getting ReadyFor Deployment

2.


Are You Ready for SIP Trunking?While SIP trunking can provide your business with many benefits you must first determine if you have the systems and resources necessary to achieve these benefits. A network assessment can let you know if you are ready for SIP trunking.

8 Questions to Ask During a Network Assessment

The Minimum Requirements for SIP Trunking Implementation

1 How many locations do you have?

2 What is the size of your WAN network?

3 How many phone connections and lines do you have?

4 Is your existing equipment outdated?

5 Do you have enough bandwidth?

6 Do you have IP PBXs?

7 Are you talking to a service provider who can meet your needs?

8 If your PBXs and phones are not SIP-enabled, does your provider offer a SIP gateway?

➔ SIP capable telephony equipment such as an IP-PBX or a SIP gateway.

➔ An IP communications infrastructure, typically an MPLS network or high-speed Internet connection.

Whether you are an SMB or an enterprise, a good provider should be able to give you a scalable solution that meets your needs.


SIP Trunking Pilots and RolloutsGo beyond the surface information about how you can transform enterprise telephony and use this tip sheet to guide your deployment strategy

You’ve decided the benefits of SIP trunking are worth ripping out those old PRIs. You’ve chosen the best SIP trunking provider in Canada to make the transition. Now it’s go time — but without following some essential steps, for many IT departments it could wind up being more like “stop and go” time.

In a virtual conference on SIP trunking best practices produced by Enterprise Connect, a pair of U.S. consultants, Jim Allen and David Stein, walked through the five phases of a typical SIP trunking deployment. While I think many technology professionals are becoming acquainted with the early-stage aspects of SIP trunking, the tips they offered on pilot projects and full-scale rollout sounded more specific and useful, so I created the following tip sheet. Keep this handy as your SIP trunking deployment gets underway.

Think about your dial plan. Most companies with an IP-PBX in place will find that the move to SIP trunking opens new opportunities to rethink the way calls are routed to end devices. These dial plans could be specific to a single site or, more likely, a group of sites.

What’s old must become new again. Session border controllers become key to integrating with legacy A323 signalling environments, Allen said, or providing interoperability between disparate SIP trunking equipment manufacturers. “While SIP is a standard, there is a still interpretation that’s occurred during the course of time,” he said. The SBC also plays a strong role in IT security, providing a demarcation point between your firm and external sources similar to a firewall, Allen said.

Imagine what your CEO will want. Your Session Manager may be bundled with your SBC and can provide a more high dial management component, Allen said. In other words, as you start to aggregate multiple PBXes together, you can create routing policies that would put a priority on routing calls to senior executives, or screening calls where necessary.

Start with the “don’t call us, we’ll call you” approach. When you start porting inbound traffic, it can be much more difficult to back out later, Allen said. Instead, take 10 DIDs and test extensively on outbound calls. Document call flows and explore as many scenarios as you can. For example, you may run into regions or countries that handle SIP traffic differently. Test voice mail and auto-attendants.

Don’t risk annoying customers. Consider the contact center. Allen and Stein recommended using G.711 for this area, as lower codecs such as G.729 may lead to failures in voice recognition prompts. No one wants to shout into a phone to get through your SIP trunking environment.

Voice should never be a one-way affair: The consultants said one of the more useful tests could be agent transfers from IP to non-IP, to make sure voice carries through to both sides. Use pilot numbers as part of the testing phase and route calls to a specific agent or cue in order to keep a closer eye on things.

By Shane Schick

http://www.allstream.com/products/ip-connectivity/sip-trunking.html

http://blog.allstream.com/sip-trunking-pilots-and-rollouts-6-steps-to-success/

http://www.allstream.com/resources/video-series-how-to-ensure-smooth-sip-trunking-implementation.html


The 5 Biggest SIP Implementation MistakesAlthough SIP trunking can bring you tremendous benefits, there are a number of pitfalls that can slow your time to market and create management hassles. Here are five of the biggest SIP implementation mistakes.

“Even through you may not be ready to deploy these advanced communications today, you should think about what you want to do with them in the future.”Melanie Turek Industry Director, Information Communications Technologies, Frost & Sullivan

Not Gaining a Holistic View of Your Telecom Environment

Failing to Ask Your Users What They Want1 2

Before you implement SIP, you must first understand what systems and features you already have. You should also understand your calling patterns (e.g. the number of local vs. long distance calls and the number of interoffice calls vs. calls to the outside world).

It’s critical to understand what your end users want from their communications. For example, many employees are now accessing corporate data through their mobile devices, so you may need to use SIP trunking to support a bring your own device (BYOD) program. Your end users may also want to take advantage of advanced communications tools such as video, instant messaging and web collaboration.

You should also learn what your end users are doing to get around your corporate network to meet their communications needs. These work-arounds can create security problems, so they must be addressed.


Failing to think through troubleshooting processes with your provider

Not Giving Voice Traffic Priority

Failing to Consider Administration and Billing3 4 5

Choosing a SIP trunking provider with the experience to assure a trouble-free installation is critical. What will your provider do if the SIP trunk fails or a power outage occurs? Your vendor should be able to address any issue, work with you to define business continuity provisions, and keep you up-and-running during a disaster.

Your SIP provider should ensure that your voice traffic gets priority over other forms of traffic This will ensure that your phone calls are always clear and your users don’t notice a drop in quality after you implement SIP. If you want to run video over your network, you should also consider a service provider that can support multiple classes of service to assign the appropriate priority to video, voice and data traffic.

Some organizations have administration or billing issues after they switch to SIP trunking, as their internal processes need to consider the new technology. For example, a multi-location organization may send one office a huge phone bill for all of its sites, while its other offices don’t receive any phone bills. These issues need to be reconciled internally so people know that they are being charged the right amounts.

Most of these mistakes can be avoided with proper planning. It’s important to work with a knowledgeable provider who can guide you through the process and consider all of your business and technology needs.


What to Look for in a Vendor

With the growth of the SIP trunking market, many providers – both established and new – claim to offer the best services. All of these options can make it challenging to cut through the fluff and find someone who can help you realize the benefits of SIP trunking. Below are seven key qualities to look for in a SIP trunking service provider:

Quality Network SecurityRunning your voice traffic on a data network helps you save money, but when you do so, you must make sure the voice traffic gets priority. This will ensure that your voice is always clear and your users do not complain about bad connections. A SIP trunking provider that owns and operates their network can provide you with the best quality service. In addition, good SIP trunking providers can tag voice packets with class of service (CoS) markers to give them priority over other forms of data on your network.

SIP trunking connects your private voice network to the public phone network via a SIP enabled connection. A SIP trunking provider that owns and operates national voice and IP data networks can route calls with fewer handoffs or points of interconnection. This can ensure you get the best quality service that is easy to manage and support.

SIP is a new form of traffic that will need to run on your data network – one that your network may not recognize. Most Internet-based deployments require firewall updates or the deployment of a SIP-aware gateway or session border controller. For greater security, a private IP-VPN network service can completely protect your traffic from Internet-based threats. Your SIP trunking provider should guide you through your options and recommend the most appropriate solution.

(Why All SIP Providers Are Not Created Equal)


Interoperability Proven ProcessesExperience

Value

It’s important to partner with a SIP trunking provider who has an interoperability lab and equipment certification program. Leading providers certify platforms from major UC vendors such as Cisco, Mitel and Avaya to ensure that equipment will function properly with their network. Providers should also offer interoperability testing for custom applications or non-certified equipment, and advise you on any potential issues with your communication network. And if you have non-standard or older equipment, your provider should be able to supply you with a SIP gateway to simplify implementation and eliminate interoperability concerns.

Ensure that your SIP provider has processes for handling problems and meeting new requirements. They should provide you with a roadmap, support your needs and integrate with your existing systems. During the architecture and design phases, you and your SIP trunking provider should think through any “what if” scenarios. For example, what will your provider do if the SIP trunk fails? Your vendor should have solid processes for addressing any issues.

Your SIP trunking provider should also make your implementation as low-risk and efficient as possible. They should provide you with a single point of contact for all of your questions and concerns. Their project plan must allow you to focus on your core business while they focus on testing, project management and simplifying your complex networks.

As more organizations are discovering the benefits of SIP trunking, more vendors are launching new solutions. Look for a provider with a mature product, as this shows that they are committed to SIP. A vendor who has experience deploying SIP can help you use it to super-power your unified communications (UC) infrastructure.

Select not only a SIP provider, but a trusted advisor. Your SIP trunking provider should not only sell the product, but also help you quantify and qualify the benefits for your organization. Each industry will achieve different benefits from SIP trunking, and your vendor should be able to explain your specific cost and operational benefits.


5 SIP Trunking Considerations to Maximize Your ROIMore businesses are adopting SIP trunking than ever before, but they want to make sure their investment pays off. A UC analyst provides some smart advice.SIP trunking is getting a lot of love from companies looking to cut costs and beef up the features and functionality of their telecom infrastructure. More than half the respondents to a recent survey from industry researcher Infonetics said they have deployed SIP trunking. By 2016, more than three-quarters of businesses will have taken the plunge, with the market expected to reach $18 billion by 2018.

The growing popularity and adoption rates of SIP trunking speak to the benefits organizations expect to gain as they make the switch from traditional systems. They’re counting on centralized trunking, improved reliability and faster deployment and service changes – and all with a cost savings of between 30-60 percent over existing systems. But getting to the Promised Land is posing some challenges.

More than half the attendees at a recent Enterprise Connect Webinar had SIP trunking deployments, but they tuned in for advice on how to get the most from their investments.

Businesses can leverage lessons learned to make “smarter” SIP trunking deployments, said Brent Kelly, President of KelCor, Inc., and a unified communications and collaborations analyst featured in the webinar. He outlined key considerations for overcoming some of the top challenges organizations face with SIP trunking deployments:

Location. Location. Location. SIP trunking deployed within a given country may be relatively painless, but going international means working with third-party carriers, and each one has a different process, cautioned Kelly. Ask service providers about their relationships with carriers in key geographies.

Avert disaster. When considering cloud-based or on-premise disaster recovery, enterprises need to think about the implications to their business if they lose power or if they lose their last mile of connectivity, said Kelly.

Keep an eye on traffic. Monitoring ability is a standard capability in most SIP trunking systems, but Kelly advised adding a session boarder controller as a demarcation point between the organization and its service provider. It also allows administrators to define triggers for limit thresholds and billing segmentation, said Kelly.

One-number nirvana. As business goes increasingly mobile, single-number reach is becoming an important consideration. Kelly pointed to call centres, which are offering customers an additional channel for service through SMS.

Your call may be recorded. The ability to capture calls can be particularly useful in call centres, but Kelly advised organizations to consider three factors before deciding: current investments, the sensitivity of the information being recorded and how fast you may need to retrieve it.

By Patricia MacInnis

http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2014/SIP-Trunking-Services-Market-Highlights.asp

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Resources3.


The Top 7 Questions about SIP Trunking1

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VoIP and SIP are very flexible allowing a variety of implementation options to help you unify your communications, streamline your networks and achieve cost savings. Many IP-PBXs already support SIP trunking. Trunk gateways are also available to integrate SIP trunking with non-SIP capable equipment. Many equipment vendors have upgrade options for legacy equipment. Make sure that your SIP provider understands not just the technology, but also the business benefits that you hope to achieve. A knowledgeable vendor can help you maximize your SIP success.

You also don’t need to move your entire enterprise to SIP all at once. You can start with one office or region – perhaps one with outdated equipment – and build upon your success later.

Most companies that implement SIP trunking already have VoIP services. However, you don’t need VoIP to gain the benefits of SIP. You can use traditional telephony and integrate SIP trunking via a SIP gateway to make your network more efficient. By installing a SIP gateway, you’ll get the benefits of SIP trunking while preparing your business for a simple transition to unified communications when you’re ready.

In short … yes. With VoIP, you can still pick up a phone and make a call – just as you have done in the past. VoIP call quality should be as high as a phone call made over a traditional phone line. Just be sure that your SIP provider can tag your packets with class of service (CoS) markers to ensure that your voice traffic gets priority over other forms of data on your network.

SIP trunking simplifies your networks and eliminates some of the complexity that comes with managing a growing number of applications and devices. With a streamlined network, your IT professionals can focus on other areas that add business value, as opposed to being tied down managing network operations.

“I’ve just upgraded my legacy equipment. Will I need to replace it if I move to SIP?”

“Do I need VoIP to have SIP?”

“Will a VoIP phone look, act and sound like a regular phone?”

“Will I need to let my IT staff go after I gain the efficiencies of SIP?”


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7Before you implement SIP, you need to look at your network to determine if you are ready to carry voice traffic over the Internet. You may need to upgrade your network, update your firewalls or change your policies. The deployment of a SIP- aware gateway or session border controller is also required for most Internet-based deployments.

For greater security, a private IP-VPN network service can completely protect your traffic from Internet-based threats. Your SIP trunking provider should guide you through your options and recommend the best solution.

One of the biggest concerns about SIP is quality of service and what will happen to voice if the Internet crashes. SIP centralizes your business continuity and disaster recovery, which enables you to stay up and running if your network goes down or if a disaster occurs. For example, when a traditional network is interrupted, you must manually reroute it. With SIP, if the power goes down in one office the network can automatically redirect calls to another site without disrupting business. SIP trunking also reduces the amount of hardware you need, which eliminates potential points of failure and makes your phone service more reliable.

SIP trunking lays the foundation for true enterprise collaboration via unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS), which brings the benefits of cloud computing to connecting employees through a variety of channels. This could include desktop video, instant messaging and other forms of interaction.

➔ More SIP trunking questions answered at allstream.com

➔ Read articles on SIP trunking at expertIP

➔ View the The IT Manager’s Guide to Voice and Data Convergence webinar

“Can I keep my calls and information secure when I switch to an IP network that routes everything through the Internet?”

“What happens if the network goes down or a disaster occurs?”

“How can I get more value out of SIP trunking?”

Related Resources


http://blog.allstream.com/category/sip-trunking

http://www.allstream.com/resources/webinar-the-it-managers-guide-to-voice-data-convergence.html


Case Studies: SIP in Action


I. Plan CanadaCompany

Network Challenges

Solution

ResultsPlan Canada is a global movement for change, mobilizing millions of people around the world to support social justice for children in developing countries.

As an NGO committed to ending global child poverty and gender inequality, Plan Canada needed an improved business resiliency and continuity plan to ensure they would be up and running at all times and able to meet the needs and expectations of donors. To enable this, they had to undergo significant infrastructure revitalization.

As part of an upgraded infrastructure managed by a multi-vendor team, Plan Canada now has Allstream network support for data and E100 Internet service as well as voice with SIP trunking, all running on an MPLS network. This network connects the data centre with an office in Ottawa and the head office in Toronto.

Plan Canada is experiencing benefits that affect both internal and external operations, including:

• Improved business resiliency/continuity

• Lowered risk of donor dissatisfaction

• Increased organizational confidence

• Ability to leverage and expand their technology to a range of future applications

• Ongoing Allstream technical and planning support

“We have a fairly complex, intermingled infrastructure today, but Allstream’s underlying networking and connectivity support is a big part of that. We’ve been very pleased. They’ve shown commitment not only on the technical side but in support of Plan Canada’s mission. It may sound intangible, but it feels tangible in practice. And the results say the relationship is working.”Rob Turpin Executive VP of Finance and Operations for Plan Canada


II. Steel Craft DoorSteel-Craft Door Products Ltd. has been manufacturing residential, commercial and industrial doors since 1963. Produced from recyclable steel, Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd. doors are sustainable, durable, suited to the Canadian climate and 100% Canadian manufactured.

With 10 sites and satellite offices located in four provinces across Canada, Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd. Products relies on its networks for both voice and data communications. As the company grew, however, the level of service it was receiving from its data network provider was not keeping pace with its requirements.

Happy with the service it was receiving with its SIP Trunking solution from Allstream, Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd. decided to migrate its data to Allstream’s MPLS network as well.

As a result of Allstream’s SIP Trunking and MPLS solution, Steel-Craft Door Products realized:

• Centralized customer service

• Increased teleworker functionality and voice-to-email capabilities

• Downloading and uploading files are roughly ten times more quickly

• Enhanced failover and redundancy capacity.

• Streamlined network administration and vastly improved productivity

• Significantly higher level of service and support.

“Allstream’s solution was able to deliver almost double the speed of our previous solution without raising our costs. In some locations, we saw increases to 100 MB of service for the same amount of money. Most important, though, Allstream offered a much higher level of administrative support and customer service.”Robert McArthur National IT Manager, Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd.

Company

Network Challenges

Solution

Results


III. VicwestCompany

Network Challenges

Solution

ResultsVicwest is a leading supplier of quality exterior building products for all segments of the construction industry across North America. Their residential line of products includes steel roofing, stone coated steel roofing, exterior trims and accents, and a variety of polycarbonate coverings perfect for garden sheds, gazebos and more.

As one of North America’s leading manufacturers and distributors of building construction, agricultural and liquid storage products, Vicwest Inc. wanted to upgrade its outdated phone system in an effort to trim costs, streamline administrative resources and improve customer service.

Having already implemented Allstream’s MPLS network, Vicwest decided to move ahead with Allstream’s SIP Trunking solution in a bid to reduce costs, simplify system administration and enhance inter-office connectivity and productivity.

In addition to the cost savings Vicwest realized after transitioning to Allstream’s MPLS network, the company was able to:

• Further reduce costs by eliminating its analog phone lines and many of its PRIs

• Increase customer service via one convenient 1-800 number

• Eliminate redundant toll-free lines

• Improve call control and call routing

“Because we’d already established our relationship with Allstream, we knew they could build on our existing services with additional features like SIP Trunking. This gave us the opportunity to acquire a scalable, future-proof system that addresses our long-term business challenges.”

Mick Montgomery Infrastructure Manager, Vicwest


Why Allstream?

“Let me tell you why SIP trunking brings value to customers – it comes down to cost, efficiency and the optimization of unified communications infrastructure.”

Grant Bykowy, Director, Voice and IP Communications Strategy, Allstream


Guaranteed cost savings of 40% on voice services when you switch to SIP trunking. And you can get those savings without compromising voice quality or service.*

Free trunk pooling, which allows you to share your total voice capacity across all your business locations while simplifying design and provisioning. With trunk pooling, you no longer need to design and manage capacity for each location, making it easier to run your business.

Internet and MPLS Access with Class of Service (CoS) Routing. SIP trunking on Allstream’s MPLS network supports six classes of service to prioritize time sensitive voice and video traffic throughout the network, ensuring good call quality. Allstream’s Business Internet service also supports CoS, enabling even single location businesses to get the benefits of SIP trunking.

Allstream’s SIP Gateway feature provides simple, low-cost SIP trunking implementation for customers that are not ready to upgrade their PBX and phones. We have tested and pre-certified this service with our SIP trunking network for simple plug and play installation to the PRI interface on your existing PBX.

*Compared to PRI and long distance voice pricing on a national tier one network. Subject to certain assumptions and exclusions; please contact us for more information.

Protect against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks at every network connection to the Internet. Allstream’s optional DDoS Protection enhances visibility and reporting for DDoS and other anomalous traffic, proactively interrupts malicious traffic, identifies attacking hosts, and improves regulatory compliance.

Allstream improves your business continuity plan with two geographically diverse SIP trunking voice gateways, one in Toronto and one in Vancouver. Customer routers can be provisioned with the IP addresses of both SBCs at the voice gateways so they can switch traffic between the two links when necessary.

Allstream’s expanded SIP trunking coverage area now reaches over 1,000 local exchanges across Canada. Now more businesses than ever can realize the cost savings and productivity gains of running their data and voice traffic over a single advanced IP-based service.

Allstream was the first national provider in Canada to offer SIP trunking and the first provider to certify all leading PBX solutions in the market with its service. As an Allstream customer you can always count on having access to the most advanced communication technologies and business models.

For more information on SIP trunking, please visit allstream.com or call 1-855-299-7050

Allstream is the only national communications provider working exclusively with business customers. We provide voice, data and Internet services that are guaranteed to make a difference in how your business operates, helping you manage costs, improve collaboration and increase productivity. All our services run on our secure national network, built and managed using advanced IP and fibre technologies and backed by our industry-leading commitment to customer service: The Allstream Service Guarantee.

http://www.allstream.com/offers-landing/save-40-per-cent-on-voice-services-guaranteed.html

http://www.allstream.com/resources/video-allstream-launches-sip-trunking-over-internet-with-class-of-service-capability.html

http://www.allstream.com/products/ip-connectivity/sip-trunking.html?tab=service-options

http://www.allstream.com/resources/video-series-understanding-business-impact-of-and-mitigating-ddos-attacks.html


http://www.allstream.com/about-us/?selection=accASG


The express lane for business in CanadaData. Internet. Voice.A guaranteed difference.

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