SIP Trunking at ITEXPO: Touching Base with BandTel

Educating end users, resellers, distributors and systems integrators about SIP Trunking is on the agenda as Ingate Systems (News - Alert) partners with TMC, leading IP-PBX vendors, SIP Trunking service providers and industry thought-leaders to present the “SIP Trunking: Everything You Need to Know“ seminars at ITEXPO East 2009, which take place February 2–4, 2009 in Miami Beach, Florida.

 

In an effort to give attendees a taste of what will be covered in the upcoming SIP Trunking seminar we decided to engage several of the featured participating speakers in a brief Q&A to get their insights into why people should attend this seminar, what the benefits of SIP Trunking are, and who might benefit from this technology, as well as a high-level view of what opportunities SIP Trunking might provide in this uncertain economy.

 

BandTel, a platinum sponsor of the seminar, will be well represented in the conference program, participating in two sessions on Monday February 2: Introduction to SIP Trunking and The Service Provider Perspective.

 

We asked Joel Maloff (News - Alert), Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at BandTel LLC to share his thoughts ahead of the event.

 

 

JM: Conference attendees will find this seminar invaluable on many levels. Firstly, SIP trunking is a term that has been used extensively by vendors, carriers, analysts, and the media, yet to the people to whom it matters the most — enterprises of all sizes and value-added resellers — it is still somewhat of a mystery. This seminar will provide exposure to all aspects of SIP trunking. Key areas of interest that will be covered include how SIP trunking can be used in a business environment, implementation issues associated with SIP trunking, network security implications, and the people and companies that can be resources in this area.

 

JM: During this seminar, BandTel will describe the different types of service providers that are currently offering SIP trunking, the issues associated with interoperability with premise systems, methods for cost justification and value identification using SIP trunking, SIP trunking services designed for specific needs (e.g., contact centers, inbound calling only, outbound calling only, etc.), and the international scope of SIP trunking. The beauty of SIP trunking is that it now affords Global Number Portability (GNP), permitting the nomadic use of telephone numbers just about anywhere they may be required.

 

JM: BandTel is a provider of PURE SIP trunking services. We do not provide hosted IP PBX (News - Alert) services, Internet connectivity, or premises systems hardware/software. As such, our “footprint” for services is not limited. We are “bandwidth agnostic” and deliver services to our partners and customers worldwide. As one of the earliest SIP trunking providers, BandTel has an outstanding track record for delivering high quality and economical SIP trunks, and works closely with partners to provide other needed services.

 

JM: There are two areas of direct benefit that can be accrued from implementing SIP trunking. To benefit from these advantages, it is important to recognize that SIP trunking is entirely different from traditional circuit-switched trunks. In fact, there are no “trunks” in SIP trunking but rather concurrent calls that can be processed via Internet access bandwidth. This leads to new capabilities, such as having local numbers ring almost anywhere in the world that you wish. This is ideal for organizations that are consolidating but wish to retain a local presence. Secondly, because SIP trunks more efficiently use the available bandwidth, dramatic cost reductions can be seen. Actual case studies have shown annual savings on telecommunications costs ranging from 25% to 70%. In today’s economic climate, those numbers will get the attention of management.

 

JM: Adoption of SIP trunking technology will directly benefit most organizations, but especially those with a need for 5 to 10 concurrent calls or greater, significant domestic and international long distance voice requirements, and those that want the perception of being local via Direct Inward Dialing (DID) numbers that terminate in a centralized location. Secondarily, value-added resellers (VARs) may find that capital expenditures are being curtailed by economic conditions and enterprises are looking to do more with what they have rather than expensive system-wide replacements. By partnering with a SIP trunking provider, these VARs can be compensated by a percentage of the recurring revenue generated by SIP trunking. This is good for the enterprise and good for the VAR.

 

JM: Some have opined that “SIP trunking is not yet ready for prime time.” Activity in the marketplace suggests otherwise. Enterprises can no longer ignore potential savings that can reach into the millions of dollars per year. As long as the premises systems have been certified as interoperable with the SIP trunking provider, the deployment has been properly designed for the inclusion of SIP-aware firewalls and other components that will allow legacy systems to properly connect, and the enterprise has sufficient Internet bandwidth, SIP trunking is ready to go. Thousands of businesses are using it today. This year — 2009 — will see the continuation of that trend.

 

JM: SIP trunking represents a real opportunity for organizations to take control over their communications expenditures, and the state of the economy bodes well for those that were hesitant to try SIP trunking. Just as gas prices above $4.00 in the U.S. triggered renewed interest in hybrid or electric vehicles, so too will the need to cut operating expenses compel organization to explore how SIP trunking can be of benefit.

 

JM: BandTel is an interoperability partner with InGate and works closely to ensure that BandTel customers understand the need for SIP-aware appliances in their network deployments.