SIP Trunking: First Step to Unified Communications for Federal Agencies
The path to unified communications for forward-thinking federal agencies begins with a step that not only gets them moving in the right direction, but significantly reduces their communications costs, freeing up budget money for more urgent uses.
That first step is SIP trunking, and what makes it such an attractive option is that it simultaneously converges voice, data, and video onto one network while at the same time slashing the number of expensive local circuits, or trunks, that an agency has to purchase from local telephone companies all around the country.
How much an agency might save varies based on a lot of factors, such as how many offices it has, where they’re located, and the scope of their communications needs. But realistically, that savings could reach 30 percent of the agency’s telecommunications costs each year. We’re talking millions of dollars that could be plowed back into the agency budget – where they could be used for otherwise under-funded priorities.
Many agencies are already working on deploying or defining their VoIP strategy, and this is the logical next step. SIP trunking amplifies the efficiencies, productivity, and cost savings that a VoIP network delivers.
The introduction of Sprint SIP trunking coincides with agency’s planning initiatives for the 2010 budget year and beyond. As such, this is the prime time to address telecom cost savings. By aggressively moving into SIP trunking trials and pilots now, it will be clearer by the time final decisions have to be made just how much of the coming years’ budgets can be better allocated to fulfill the agency’s mission.
Let’s just take one example, and that’s Sprint itself. You can find more about our internal use of SIP trunking and its cost savings here, but the Tweeter-sized version of the story is that with a single SIP trunk running over our MPLS network replacing three separate circuits in each office, we should save $7 million a year, $6 million of that in local carrier charges and the rest on foregone PBX upgrades and maintenance.
There’s one more important point. A move to SIP trunking sets the stage for the evolution to unified communications. The increases in individual productivity that unified communications can bring is another whole story in itself, not to mention how well it helps an agency attract the energetic, young, tech-savvy employees of the future.
-Bill White
Email
Bookmark
Digg
Tweet This
SubscribeTags: federal networks, SIP trunking, Unified communications, VoIP, VoIP networks
