Making big changes to your company’s technology infrastructure can feel overwhelming. Maintaining the status quo is often easier than wading through complicated technical issues.

But when it comes to your voice communication system, the status quo may not serve your needs—and in fact, an old, outdated phone system may even hurt your company.

Fortunately, there’s a modern solution that can help your organization enter the cloud communication landscape. It’s called SIP trunking, and it’s a simple, comprehensive way to update your existing legacy phone system with minimal disruption—and possibly even reduce your phone bill in the process.

The Basics of SIP Trunks

“SIP” stands for “Session Initiation Protocol,” a process that tells an IP-based network how to create, manage, and terminate calls. SIP trunks replace traditional phone lines with virtual connections that allow an organization to transmit voice, video, and data seamlessly over the Internet.

SIP Trunks Benefits

SIP trunks offer a number of benefits for organizations that need to move toward cloud-based communications but aren’t ready to jettison that legacy phone system yet.

Streamlined Network

An organization can consolidate all its phones and data into one network by implementing SIP trunks, simplifying network maintenance and management.

Improved Continuity

Because SIP trunks can be forwarded to any number, employees can work from anywhere without disruption. An onsite office emergency no longer has to derail operations because no one can get to the phones—just forward to another location or a cell phone, and business can continue.

Reduced Costs

As telephone carriers phase out analog phone lines, some companies have seen huge jumps in costs to maintain their existing landlines. In addition, legacy phone systems with traditional handsets are becoming more expensive to update and maintain as the equipment is phased out or dedicated software becomes obsolete.

SIP trunks offer a way for companies to stabilize and even reduce costs by moving voice communications to the Internet.

Reliability

Traditional landlines are subject to physical disruption—such as someone digging up a line, a storm knocking out service, or even theft. SIP trunks rely on your internal network and Internet service. As long as you’ve secured your network with some SIP trunk best practices, your phone calls should be less subject to disruption than your old landlines.

Scalability

The number of lines a company has with SIP trunking is limited only by the organization’s network power. Add one line or thirty at a time—with SIP trunking, you can scale up in big leaps or one line at a time as your organization grows.

SIP Trunk Setup and Planning

SIP trunk setup and configuration is probably one of the simplest digital transformation projects you can undertake, but it does take some planning and may require some equipment purchases on the front end. 

Let’s walk through it together. 

Step one: Plan your migration

Take a detailed inventory of all your current equipment, and carefully analyze needs at all your sites. Consider peak call times as well, including busy seasons. Will you need additional lines for temporary staff during certain months?

A quick review of some SIP trunking best practices can help you determine what you’ll need for your SIP trunk configuration. In general, you will need:

• A reliable broadband Internet connection
• A PBX with an ethernet port
• An adapter if your PBX does not have an ethernet port
• A router (or routers) that allows you to prioritize voice traffic by turning on Quality of Service (QoS)

While it’s true that you can find a SIP trunk provider fairly easily, that doesn’t mean the provider is the right one for you. In addition to costs, look at security, reliability, reach, redundancy, and compliance.

Step two: Find a provider and configure your SIP trunks

Ask yourself:

• Does the carrier offer global SIP trunking?
• How many data centers does the carrier have to reduce latency and support redundancy?
• Does the provider comply with industry and regulatory requirements? Do they offer tools to help you do the same?
• What is the SLA for uptime?
• Does the provider offer self-service number management? Can you create workstations, provision numbers, configure users, and get real-time insights through a self-service app?

With all the SIP trunk providers out there, reviewing a list of requirements with each one can be helpful to see how they measure up.

(Psssst! Our SIP trunk provider checklist can help you evaluate your options.)

Step three: Test your connection and migrate your numbers 

When it comes to setting up new trunks, having the right resources is everything, so be sure your carrier provides SIP integration guides to help you connect confidently to the network. After completing a voice test plan, you can easily migrate your existing numbers. Yes, porting is typically a headache, full of annoying rejections or redundant data entry—but it doesn’t have to be!

Even better, with our self-service API, you can migrate numbers, buy new numbers, and ensure your end-users can reach emergency services.

Step four: Start making calls! 

With your shiny new SIP trunk set up and your numbers migrated, it’s time to start dialing!

Still have questions? We’ve got answers. And we’re only a call away. 

Let our experts help you step out of digital or analog communications and into the cloud. Contact us to learn more.