Many call centers have already made the transition to SIP Trunking and are realizing tremendous cost savings with this newer technology. But the question you might be asking is how can I take advantage of the cost savings of SIP Trunking when I'm not ready to get rid of my PRI dialer? And that is a great question. With the proper bandwidth in place and an interface device called a SIP Gateway you can take advantage of the cost savings of SIP Trunking that will convert the SIP dialtone into PRI signaling and still retain using your PRI dialer without having to invest money into a SIP Dialer. You will also realize another tremendous benefit since most SIP carriers are not charging short duration penalties.
If you're asking yourself so what is all this going to cost me compared to what I'm paying now that's a great question as well. If your call center is beyond about five or six T1s you really are at the point where bandwidth becomes a lot more cost-effective than the monthly loops that you're paying for your T1s. So on that component of the equation for the SIP trunking solution in many cases it's going to cost you less than what you're paying right now on the bandwidth alone. After that your only other true costs to be concerned with is the cost of the Gateway and the cost of installation through either your own internal IT department or if you have to hire a third-party IT company.
Most call centers that are dialing several hundred thousand minutes per month and especially those who are dialing millions of minutes per month are going to realize tremendous cost savings with SIP Trunking over traditional PRI long-distance services. So whether you buy a new, refurbished or used SIP Gateway your ROI in most cases it is going to be just a few months based on the savings with your long-distance minutes charges.
In addition, with SIP Trunking there's other cost advantages by having multiple carriers and using Least Cost Routing to provide the lowest cost in each region where you're making your calls. This is something that your IT department that manages your Dialer can implement or there are third-party providers that have least cost routing services that will accomplish this for you.
In the past call centers utilizing PRI were able to realize some level of benefit with Least Cost Routing by using one carrier to cover for example one region of the country and another carrier for the rest of the country. But with SIP Trunking the benefits of Least Cost Routing is much more diversified than in the past. For example, you now can use Least Cost Routing for every type of call, any kind of landline, every cell phone number, VOIP numbers, regions controlled by large incumbent providers such as AT&T or Verizon, smaller regional operators, or rural telcos.
The level of sophistication has been taken to a new level and call centers can reap the same benefits that in the past only the carriers could do who utilized complex Least Cost Routing. The same is true for utilizing SIP Trunking with nationwide DIDs. Using nationwide DIDs increases your answer rate or ratios which translates into more sales and revenue. This will also translate into higher return calls which is another reason how SIP Trunking will increase your revenues, improve your marketing campaigns for those who do not make a purchase through your call center on the first or second contact.
So what are the steps involved you may ask? Let's examine a case study as an example to go through the steps of converting to SIP Trunking but yet retaining your PRI Dialer. Call center Resilient Marketing had been utilizing PRI carriers for the past 10 years at the point they decided to take a look at SIP Trunking. They had 12 long-distance PRI T 1's in place and at a cost of $180 per month per T-1 PRI Loop their monthly spend on the loops alone was $2160. For the conversion to SIP Trunking project they found a 20 MB Ethernet solution for $929 per month. So before they've even made their first call they are already over $1200 ahead in the black.
Their Call Center consisted of about 100 agents, even though all seats were not filled up completely every single day. Their call volume fluctuated between 600 to 800,000 minutes per month. Their current provider averaged about a 1.8 cents per minute charge, so their monthly usage bills before taxes rangedfrom about $11,000-$14,000 per month. So on the high end, between the loops and the usage their bills were around $16,000 before taxes. Add another $3200 in usage taxes and their total monthly spend was about $19,200 on the high-end per month.
They selected a SIP Gateway that could handle four PRI's per Gateway at a cost of a little over $4000. For three of these the upfront investment was $12,000. After deciding on three main SIP providers and utilizing least cost routing their usage per minute rate dropped from 1.8 cents per minute in the PRI environment down to just a little over.007 cents per minute with SIP Trunking. New total monthly expenditures were then $5600 on the high-end for usage plus $929 for the 20 MB Ethernet pipe and about $860 in taxes. Lower taxes are also another benefit with SIP Trunking which can be anywhere from 5 to 10% lower than traditional PRI services.
The bottom line comparison on a high-end month had dropped from $19,200 down to $7391. Their ROI for the SIP Gateway was just a little over a month factoring in the cost of the hardware purchase, taxes and installation. Over time they found that their answer ratios improved, the number of sales improved, and long-term responses improved because callback ratios had also increased which helped their e-mail Drip campaigns to become more effective and long-term funnels filled up also as a result of the changes made.
Depending on where your call center is located there will be situations where you may not find cost-effective bandwidth as low as this example but every day more and more businesses are seeing that T-1 copper technology is being quickly replaced by more cost-effective technologies not only for voice but also for bandwidth and data needs.
For more information on SIP for Call Centers please visit us at https://www.nurango.ca
Monday 29 July 2013
Introduction to SIP Trunking - What is it anyway?
SIP trunking employs PBX to let businesses to work with VoIP as well as other real-time communication methods. The SIP trunk can be plugged into a traditional telephony network, allowing organizations to speak with people outside of the local network by IP technology. SIP trunking likewise allows all telephone communication to pass through a solitary avenue, consequently minimizing cost and raising the stability of the connection. This is excellent for small enterprises that were previously not able to afford unified communications technology while offering a massive boost to business continuity.
SIP Trunking: How Exactly Does it Operate?
SIP Trunking operates by integrating voice and data communications into something which can be performed over a single line. SIP trunking forms a bridge between the business's internet connection and the conventional phone line to enable a data network to carry voice traffic.
To illustrate, picture that an employee located in San Diego needs to make a phone call to their headquarters in Manhattan; they utilise the office telephony system as normal. The call is changed into an Ip call (or stems as one, based on the system used to place the call), and travels the majority of the distance over the IP network. It then falls into the PSTN once it reaches its destination. Why is all of this worthwhile? Simply because the call cost is merely a small fraction of a regular long-distance phone call. These savings can really accumulate for companies that produce a lot of long distance phone calls.
Can SIP Trunking Help with Business Continuity?
So long as your SIP trunk is set up properly, it can be more dependable than, for instance, a standard ISDN connection. The main factor here however, if you'd like to increase your business continuity, is to make sure the SIP trunk is established properly. For maximum consistency, you will need to ensure you have a direct link to your trunk service provider. You will additionally need some kind of failover connection. If you aren't positive whether SIP will work for you, there are hybrid alternatives offered.
Transferring to SIP Trunking
There's an up-front expense to implementing SIP Trunking. This is to pay for a direct link to your trunk provider. Without it your call quality will be affected. Additionally, you will need to invest in a SIP gateway. However despite this initial charge, it won't be that long before you recover the fee on telephone calls, line rental costs and data connection.
Thinking long term you'll make substantially more cost savings, especially if your business grows. ISDN lines are confined to 30 channels per circuit, but SIP is completely scalable, so you'll have the capacity to keep expanding your existing setup without the need to fork out for additional lines.
This scalability is fantastic for small companies, as they don't have to dedicate themselves to services that they're going to rapidly grow out of, or shell out for technology which is beyond what they need, just in case they need it at some point.
For more information please check out our SIP Trunking options at https://www.nurango.ca
SIP Trunking: How Exactly Does it Operate?
SIP Trunking operates by integrating voice and data communications into something which can be performed over a single line. SIP trunking forms a bridge between the business's internet connection and the conventional phone line to enable a data network to carry voice traffic.
To illustrate, picture that an employee located in San Diego needs to make a phone call to their headquarters in Manhattan; they utilise the office telephony system as normal. The call is changed into an Ip call (or stems as one, based on the system used to place the call), and travels the majority of the distance over the IP network. It then falls into the PSTN once it reaches its destination. Why is all of this worthwhile? Simply because the call cost is merely a small fraction of a regular long-distance phone call. These savings can really accumulate for companies that produce a lot of long distance phone calls.
Can SIP Trunking Help with Business Continuity?
So long as your SIP trunk is set up properly, it can be more dependable than, for instance, a standard ISDN connection. The main factor here however, if you'd like to increase your business continuity, is to make sure the SIP trunk is established properly. For maximum consistency, you will need to ensure you have a direct link to your trunk service provider. You will additionally need some kind of failover connection. If you aren't positive whether SIP will work for you, there are hybrid alternatives offered.
Transferring to SIP Trunking
There's an up-front expense to implementing SIP Trunking. This is to pay for a direct link to your trunk provider. Without it your call quality will be affected. Additionally, you will need to invest in a SIP gateway. However despite this initial charge, it won't be that long before you recover the fee on telephone calls, line rental costs and data connection.
Thinking long term you'll make substantially more cost savings, especially if your business grows. ISDN lines are confined to 30 channels per circuit, but SIP is completely scalable, so you'll have the capacity to keep expanding your existing setup without the need to fork out for additional lines.
This scalability is fantastic for small companies, as they don't have to dedicate themselves to services that they're going to rapidly grow out of, or shell out for technology which is beyond what they need, just in case they need it at some point.
For more information please check out our SIP Trunking options at https://www.nurango.ca
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