Prepping to Implement SIP Trunking

As small and medium-sized business owners embrace unified communications in order to better equip their increasingly mobile workforce, many are considering implementing SIP Trunking. They see it as a bridge to turning their business into an agile, mobile enterprise.

Enterprises are already embracing SIP Trunking - Infonetics projected earlier this year that 58 percent of enterprises businesses will deploy SIP Trunking by 2015. SMBs are following suit.

That means Interconnects and MSPs are going to be busy in the months and years ahead delivering and managing SIP Trunking. And part of the sales process will be advising your customers on what implementation entails, what to expect, as well as how it can impact their business.

You likely know the advantages of SIP Trunking – SIP is easier to design, operate, maintain and upgrade through an extended VoIP environment and provides other business advantages such as reduced costs and greater flexibility.

So, there’s plenty of upside to attract an SMB owner or manager. But most SMB customers will be wary of the implementation, due to their perceptions of the complexity of switching over from standard PSTN to SIP Trunks.

Here is what your end customers should be considering, and how you can answer their questions:

• Is the platform proven? How long have they offered SIP services? Do they have proven success stories? End customers will carefully consider the platform’s credentials, so it’s important for the Interconnect or MSP to be able to offer a provably robust platform.
• Can they demonstrate successful deployments? In addition to having satisfied customers, can they offer case studies specific to their deployment practices? Do they have detailed discovery and pre-planning processes? If an Interconnect or MSP is aligned with a robust platform that has a repeatable deployment process, it will make a difference for the end customer’s experience. And the more detailed an implementation process is, the more likely they’ll be to get out in front of any challenges.
• How robust is their training? Do they even have a training program? Interconnects and MSPS should have a standard training module that both educates end customer staff and delivers a sense of security that they are maximizing the potential of their communications.

Many SMB owners are not going to care to understand the intricacies of SIP Trunking and how it works. They’ll be interested in the business upside, which is considerable. After that, they’ll want to know how big a disruption is in store when they transition to SIP Trunking. Being prepared to coach them through the implementation process will help your Interconnect or MSP make the sale, and have satisfied customers over the long term.