Incremental Migration to VoIP
November 18th, 2020 by admin
Businesses with a significant investment in premise-based equipment can feel torn between the frying pan and the fryer. The first fire is the exorbitant costs of traditional telephony. The second fire is the investment in premise-based equipment. Migrating to a Hosted VoIP solution will save a lot of money moving forward but require new equipment – equipment that “was just paid for.”
Fortunately, there’s a “middle solution” that allows an organization to save money on their phone bill now without buying a bunch of new equipment. The middle solution is an incremental migration to VoIP that uses SIP as a stepping stone.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand what the words “SIP” or “VoIP” means. We’ll explain our incremental VoIP migration over the next 600 words, so you know how your business can navigate its current predicament without making another big capital investment.
How Do Businesses Use SIP as a Stepping Stone to Hosted VoIP?
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a great way for businesses to continue to use their telephone equipment while still making that initial switch to digital telephony. Here’s how it works.
SIP calls are cheaper but do not require upfront investment
If you haven’t switched to digital voice, then you are using Time Division Multiplexing (TDM): the traditional phone service that runs over copper wires. Each TDM line allows up to a few calls simultaneously, thanks to the invention of TDM. But copper is less efficient than cable or fiber, the lines your Internet connection uses (less than 1% of the bandwidth). Why wouldn’t you use the more cost-effective lines to transmit and receive voice communications as well?
It’s kind of like this. Imagine a river with two bridges across it. One bridge was built in the early 1900s. It looks like this.
If copper-based telephony were a bridge…
If cable or fiber were a bridge…
More people can shuttle across the newer bridge in a few minutes than could get across the old one in an entire day.
SIP enables you to converge data and communications services on Internet channels, so that voice and data can coexist on the most robust, cost-effective circuit available, allowing your business to start using the new bridge so you can start paying less for each call.
How Much Less?
Every business is different in the number of employees and how frequently employees make calls. However, on average our SIP Trunks save our customers up to 50% on line rentals and 25% on calls. Some of our clients save tens of thousands per year. Here are a few examples:
- Business switched to bring your own bandwidth policy and saves $27,000 per year with SIP.
- Merging business consolidates locations and places one location on SIP trunks for 6 months to prepare for hosted VoIP.
What about Call Quality?
Because digital lines are so much more robust than copper, they give us the flexibility to use more data for each call. You can easily hear the difference between digital and copper lines. Digital sounds like your caller is sitting next to you, and it makes copper seem like an old tin can.
How much will Hosted VoIP cost as an upfront investment?
Hosted VoIP requires more significant investment in digital telephony. If you wanted to save up short-term savings from moving to SIP, then it could take approximately two years. Your business can choose your own migration speed.
Why is Hosted VoIP better?
Hosted VoIP centralizes your main telecommunications hub in the cloud, giving your business more flexibility and agility. Automated assistants, integration with mobile devices, and advanced call management are just a few of the advantages. Check out our Hosted VoIP page for more information.
Migrate to VoIP Incrementally without Making a Big Upfront Investment
Whether you switch to SIP or VoIP, the convergence of voice and data is extremely powerful, unlocking a host of features that simplify business administration while improving customer experience. It makes your business easier to engage for everyone.
Convergence Solutions is excited to play an integral role in guiding companies through the journey from copper to fiber, from TDM to SIP to Hosted VoIP.
If you want unlimited local and long-distance calling, please give us a call.
Contact us today to learn more about incremental migration!
Posted in: Cloud Applications