Two solid strategies for distinguishing yourself in the marketplace and protecting your margins

 

“Cheap is the last refuge for the marketer who can't figure out how to be better.”  - Seth Godin

 

Topics: Customer Service, Total Voice Solution

In the complicated SIP trunking migration process, here are some tips that will help you achieve the results you want for your organization.

By Andrew Prokop of SIP Adventures, a unified communications blog

Learning never exhausts the mind.
-- Leonardo da Vinci

I go to a fair number of tradeshows and industry conferences throughout the year, and as much as I love presenting at these events, I am just as thrilled to attend sessions given by my communications colleagues. It's rare when I don't pick up a tip or two, and there have been a number of sessions that have changed the way I view a product or a particular technology.

This year, I presented two breakout sessions at Avaya's IAUG Engage 2016 conference and attended at least a half dozen more. I would love to write about all my favorites, but for now, I will pick one.

For me, Larry Riba's "Secrets of a Successful SIP Trunking Migration" was a highlight. It's not that I haven't been living and breathing SIP migrations for the past several years. Believe me, I've paid my dues, time and time again. Still, hearing personal experiences allow me to see things that I might not otherwise see. Even the best of us fall into patterns and tend to repeat the same methodologies over and over again.

Larry began his presentation by discussing the benefits of SIP trunking. While most were not new to me (e.g. better redundancy and failover, cost savings, reduction in inbound and outbound trunks, etc.), a few were not on my personal list of "Why SIP?" For instance:

• Simplified call recording infrastructure with the capability to record in stereo
• Centralizing SIP trunks can often become the catalyst for improving WAN resiliency and increasing bandwidth, benefits that are then shared with non-voice traffic

Following the benefits of SIP, it was off to checklists for preparation, design decisions, choosing a SIP provider, planning, and avoiding pitfalls.

Topics: SIP

Get even more bang for your buck by adding these five bells and whistles to your VoIP server.

 

 

As long as you have one, you may as well get the most out of your IP PBX by taking advantage of the plethora of applications and systems designed to work on it. IP PBXs of course coordinate your VoIP communications, but they can also do a host of other things. Here we list five non-voice services your IP PBX can perform for your business.

 

Topics: IP PBX, VoIP, SIP, Peripherals

We consider session border controllers (SBCs) to be a best practice in most enterprise contexts because of the improved security, control and overall VoIP system functionality they lend.

So what exactly are SBCs and why do you need one?

Topics: SIP Phones, QoS, Business Telephone System, VoIP, SIP, Total Voice Solution, Network Security

 

National telephone operators have been investing less in maintaining traditional PSTN networks and paying more attention – and money – to building out their mobile and Internet protocol (IP) networks. AT&T launched its Project Velocity IP in 2012 with the intention of expanding its wired broadband IP network to reach 75% of its customer locations in three years. In Europe, British Telecom and Deutsche Telekom both have their sights set on all-IP. DT’s website says, “The network of the future is an integrated, all-IP network.”

A common reason some businesses still cling to their PSTN lines even when they’ve switched to a VoIP (voice over IP) phone system is to have a failover option. Here we look at some other failover mechanisms that don’t require a PSTN line, as well as the key benefits to switching to all-IP.

Topics: IP PBX, Business Telephone System, VoIP, SIP, Total Voice Solution, Software Integration, Trends

6 techniques for making your network installations quicker and easier

Topics: IP PBX, Business Telephone System, VoIP, SIP, Total Voice Solution

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Some businesses do a good job of securing their data network (local area network or LAN) but forget to secure their wireless network. Despite all the pains they took to secure their LANs, their network is as vulnerable to entry as a locked car with the windows rolled down. Wi-Fi network security is a common blind spot, especially for small businesses. Here we look at some basic steps companies can take to lock down their Wi-Fi networks.

Topics: VoWi-Fi, Business Telephone System, Network Security

The quality and reliability of telephone calls placed over the Internet (voice over Internet protocol – or VoIP – calls) keep getting better, and often callers cannot tell the difference between calls placed over an IP network and a traditional phone line. That said, VOIP calls do sometimes get dropped and here we examine a few of the causes and tips for troubleshooting them.

Topics: SIP Phones, IP PBX, Business Telephone System, VoIP, SIP

One hesitation some companies have in moving over to a full IP business telephone system revolves around concerns over using the 911 emergency call service. Do companies really need a back-up PSTN line to make emergency calls? How reliable is emergency dialing over the Internet?

Topics: IP PBX, Business Telephone System, VoIP, SIP, Trends

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Asterisk is one of the most common open-source frameworks for running IP (Internet protocol) PBXs and VOIP gateways. Here we list a few cool tricks that can be done with SIP (session initiation protocol) phone systems running Asterisk. Many other open-source and proprietary platforms allow you to do some or all of these, so ask your manufacturer’s rep about these features if you are using a different platform.

 

Topics: SIP Phones, Business Telephone System, VoIP, SIP, Total Voice Solution, Software Integration