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September 2008 | Volume 11 / Number 9
Feature Story

SIP and the Enterprise: Enabling UC and Delivering ROI

By: Nicola Jackson

In today’s tightening economy, enterprises across the country are evaluating their network solutions to make sure they are investing their money wisely. They are looking for ways to save money while enabling the applications that allow their companies to conduct business most efficiently. And many of these enterprises are coming to the same conclusion: SIP.

Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) has emerged as the leading signaling protocol for the efficient support of a host of networkbased applications, including VoIP, conferencing, email, instant messaging, multi-media and others. As businesses look to implement these applications in order to enhance their performance, there is an increasing demand for SIP. According to Forrester Research (News - Alert), more than 60 percent of North American enterprises plan to deploy SIP for site-to-site wide area networking in support of VoIP by 2010 (See Forrester Research, Enterprise Network and Telecommunications Survey, North America and Europe, Q1 2007). So what is SIP, what are its benefits and how do you know if it’s right for your business?

SIP is an application layer protocol that simplifies the set up, modification and tear-down of communications sessions over an Internet Protocol network. SIP was designed to be independent of the underlying transport medium by putting control of the network into the edge devices. This is unique from other protocols such as SS7, which control calls to the devices from the inside out.




SIP and Unified Communications (News - Alert)

More recently, SIP has emerged as the preferred protocol for new and innovative types of communications, including the enablement of mobility, unified and presence-based communications. One area where SIP will have its greatest role is in Unified Communications (UC). There are many definitions of UC, and its use varies based on the needs of the user or enterprise. It’s a productivity tool that brings together different communications platforms, leverages presence or the awareness of a person’s location, and allows the user to set preferences for inbound and outbound communications. It integrates services such as fixed phone service, mobile phone service, conferencing, email, instant messaging, and fax.

With SIP, requests for session initiation are not sent to a device, but directly to the network. The network then locates the device based on the user’s presence and then routes the call to the appropriate device. Therefore, it has the ability to lessen the dependence on multiple communications devices. Through UC, SIP has significant implications for radically transforming communications across the enterprise.

SIP also enables other capabilities for the enterprise, such as disaster recovery and extending presence. Because SIP auto-detects presence, it has an innate ability to reroute calls to alternate destinations in the event of outage, over-utilization, or other network-impacting event. In addition, SIP supports the concept of virtual numbers. As a result, it can enable businesses to expand their coverage area even before having a physical presence in a city.

Realizing ROI

In terms of tangible benefits, SIP offers enterprises significant productivity enhancements and cost savings. Imagine the productivity gains to be had as a result of being able to do business anytime, anywhere, while minimizing the number of devices and mailboxes to manage and directing communications by location and status. Cost savings are recognizable in several ways. The most immediate cost savings are in the value of integrating voice and data communications over a single circuit. Leveraging dynamic bandwidth allocation to use bandwidth for data purposes while voice is idle can help reduce the total amount of bandwidth while maximizing the use of the bandwidth available. All of this translates into lower costs for the enterprise.

Yet another benefit of SIP is that it can be introduced gradually across the enterprise. A SIP implementation doesn’t have to mean a rip and replace of existing technologies. A business with legacy digital TDM PBXs can utilize SIP as the underlying protocol without replacing the PBX (News - Alert). Also, SIP and UC can be added to a business incrementally.

Is SIP right for you?

It’s clear that SIP can greatly improve an enterprise’s network efficiency and provide significant cost savings. However, companies must weigh a number of variables when deciding when and how to deploy SIP. Each enterprise faces its own set of unique needs and hurdles. For example, a local consulting company with a mobile work force has a different set of problems than a national retail chain with locations across the country. Additionally, the choice to deploy a new IP-based PBX to enable SIP depends greatly on the particular situation of the business. If a PBX is right-sized and fairly current, it may not make sense to replace it. But if a business is outgrowing their current PBX, it may make sense to upgrade to an IP-enabled PBX in order to leverage the promise of SIP across the enterprise.

The decision to implement SIP cannot be made without understanding two key issues: interoperability and E911. While traditional signaling protocols like ISDN PRI have been around for 20 years or more and have matured significantly over time, SIP is still early in its adoption. Standards are emerging and being adopted by hardware vendors and service providers alike. However, in order for a company to ensure a smooth transition to SIP, it is of critical importance to verify that a service provider has demonstrated compatibility between its network and the IP-PBX equipment being deployed. Additionally, the service provider must ensure E911 availability and correct routing for employees. In the world of SIP where trunks can be virtual, ensuring E911 effectiveness becomes much more complex. These two issues must be addressed by business thinking about converting to SIP.

SIP is an exciting signaling protocol that is receiving increasing attention from enterprises that want to implement new networkbased applications and are looking for additional ways to cut costs and boost productivity. SIP will continue to grow in popularity as businesses turn to unified communications solutions and reevaluate their disaster-recovery plans. As with any major network upgrade, enterprises must be sure to address their particular needs and situation in order to ensure a smooth transition. IT

Nicola Jackson is Director of Product Management for Voice and Converged IP Services at XO Communications (News - Alert) (www.xo.com).

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