Don’t know much about SIP Trunking? No worries!
SIP Trunking is popular medium to provision calls for many who use VoIP. Along with flexibility and scalability SIP Trunking gives huge cost benefits.
First, you need to ask yourself some questions.
What is the use my phone system?
- Are you simply receiving calls from clients?
- How valuable are conference calls to your business?
- Do you rely on voicemails while you are out of the office?
- What about faxing?
You need to understand how important the phone system is to you or your business. How often you receive calls? When you receive them, is someone there to answer the call at all times? How is the state of your phone system going to reflect your business model to the clients?
These answers will dictate what services you are looking for in a SIP Trunk provider. While many providers are out there, they do not all offer the same services.
Will my needs for the phone system grow over time?
We are a very digital oriented human race today. The SIP trunk phone system simply will expand on that. With offerings like voicemail to email, texting, and video chats, you may not need all these features. However voicemail to email is usually a pretty standard feature and one that can keep employees connected even when they are out of the office. The ability to forward a desk phone to a cell phone is another feature that is generally included, and another excellent feature for those who are rarely in the office.
SIP Trunk gives ability to accept calls and voicemails from anywhere. It gives flexibility to do business anytime, and anywhere.
How much bandwidth do I need from my ISP? Do I need an additional access point?
While searching for a provider, you should be looking at the information they provide on bandwidth usage over a specific number of calls. There are providers who will supply dedicated connections for your voice service. This is sometimes far more effective when and if you have issues with your trunks. Simply contacting the provider will be enough to sort out issues. However if you choose to utilize an existing network connection, or even if you plan to have your provider bring in a second connect specifically for voice, it is wise to keep in the front of your mind that you now have multiple points of contact for phone issues. Will it be the trunk provider, will it be the ISP, could it simply be an internal issue? The complexity of issues that arise are not frequent, but as with any other type of support, it can be easy to point at someone else. Be sure to check the reliability of not only Sip trunk providers, but of the ISP as well.
The complexity of the system you should be dictated by the needs of your staff and your customers, not the price of the provider. SIP trunks are a powerful tool for your business. Having a clear understanding of your own needs, as well as those of your customers will give you the knowledge and flexibility to select a provider that offers the services you require with the room to grow.