How to Reduce your SIP Trunk Cost with GoTrunk

There are two main reasons why many organizations are quickly deploying SIP trunking solutions. One is that upgrading from the PSTN will ensure that you have future-proofed the communication infrastructure of your business. After all, the PSTN may not be around for much longer! Naturally, it will take the better part of a decade for the older network to become completely obsolete. But that day is certainly coming and your company should be prepared for it.

The second reason – and the far more common one – is for the potential cost savings. You get some immediate benefits like not having to pay for a hefty service contract, reduced rates for long distance calling, free calls within your organization and so on. Other cost related benefits you will see further down the line include productivity improvements and more efficient use of resources.

Reducing Your SIP Trunk Costs

Quite a few enterprises are happy with the cost savings they see with SIP trunks as they are almost always substantially cheaper than the PSTN equivalent. However whether you are new to the world of VoIP and SIP trunks or you have been using SIP trunks for a long time, the price you are currently paying may not be the best you could get.

There are many reasons for this. Competition among vendors in the SIP trunking segment is fierce and prices fluctuate quite often. SIP trunks can also serve as the foundation for more advanced functionality such as unified communication systems, further bringing down expenses. So what can you do to reduce your SIP trunk costs?

SIP Trunk Cost – Changing What You Pay

Not every business is overpaying for their SIP trunking deployments but a few certainly are. It is very easy to overpay for something when we don’t really understand the technology behind it. Sometimes a company may purchase more trunks than they need because they don’t want to risk failure of the system if there is a sudden rise in call volume.

On the other hand, even businesses that have been using SIP trunks for some time could be paying far more than they need to. Maybe you have not renegotiated price since the beginning and prices change rapidly in the VoIP market. Or the current provider has introduced new and cheaper plans that will better suit your needs but you just don’t know about it. It is generally a good practice to review what you’re paying for SIP trunking every few years so that you don’t miss out on price reductions, discounts or even changes in your own requirements.

SIP Trunk Costs – Changing What You Get

Suppose you have thoroughly reviewed your current SIP trunk deployment and you know you cannot get a better price. Now you can approach costs from the other end of the equation – try to maximize the value you are getting from your communication system. Let us consider an example. Suppose you are paying $10 for 10 different features in a product. You can reduce costs by renegotiating the price down to $5 for the same set of features or try to get 15 features for the same $10. Either way you are maximizing the value of your purchase.

It is the same with SIP trunking. If you are sure that you cannot get a better price from the market, it is time to explore other ways of increasing the utility of your SIP implementation. SIP trunks can serve as a foundation for unified communication tools but not many companies have started doing this. The term UC is applied to a set of tools that integrate various communication channels and present a common interface to the user. This way you get efficiency improvements for the same price you are paying now.

Integration with Other Technologies

Even if you are not ready for unified communication, you should still see if you are utilizing the advanced VoIP features effectively. Tools like IVR, IP faxing etc can be very useful within your company. What if you are still hanging on to fax machines even though your SIP trunk can handle digital faxes? You can get rid of them and streamline your operations. The same goes for video calling and conferencing functionality. You may be using older tools that are now unnecessary since SIP trunks can support the same or similar functions.

Another overlooked feature is integrating your SIP trunks with enterprise systems like CRM solutions. Time is money in business and halving the time required for a task can add up to substantial savings, especially if you have more than a handful of employees. Not to mention the value added because your users are not distracted by mundane tasks and can focus on higher value processes. A little market research and some time spent in reviewing your SIP trunking system can bring you many benefits down the line.