The adoption of cloud communications is growing at a significant clip – according to Eastern Management Group that trend will only continue. The analyst firm predicts that the SIP trunking market will reach $22B worldwide by 2024. With a rapidly growing number of SIP trunking providers to choose from, it can be confusing with so many vendors out there who all sound very much alike.
If you are one of the many businesses out there who need a little help narrowing down the most important criteria in selecting a SIP trunking provider, check out these four recommendations to make an educated buying decision.
1. Price shouldn’t be the end-all be-all
If price is by-and-large the most important factor in your decision, then don’t waste your time reading the rest of this blog. You know the old adage, “You get what you pay for” and that’s often true when it comes to selecting a SIP trunking provider. At Flowroute, we have had a number of customers leave because we couldn’t match a competitor’s price, only to have them port their business back to us a few months later due to poor call and voice quality, and inadequate customer service.
2. What has your network done for you lately?
We can’t stress this enough. The quality of your calls and the reliability of the IP communications system is directly related to the quality of the carrier network that the SIP provider uses to deliver calls to the PSTN (public switched telephone network). Over the last year, we have seen massive network outages by traditional service providers like Comcast and CenturyLink which have left businesses without voice and messaging services for days. This is simply unacceptable. Do your due diligence to determine if your SIP provider has a way to route around network impairments to ensure that any impacts on your business are quick and minimal.
3. Flexibility and simplicity out of the gate
When comparing SIP trunking providers there is a great deal of variance in business terms. The most flexible options don’t require long-term contracts and allow businesses to easily scale their services based on usage – only paying for what they use. If you have a SIP provider that only offers Primary Rate Interface (PRI) channels, you will ultimately be paying for capacity you aren’t using.
4. Customer service is more like customer success
How many companies have you worked with that don’t provide an easy and convenient way to engage with them, whether on the phone, through email or with instant online chat? It’s important to have a SIP provider with skilled technical resources to help with initial set-up or troubleshoot any issues. Telecom is a highly technical skill set to have. The support team for your communications services should be an extension of your IT staff to ensure that your business can successfully make calls and send messages each and every time.
Confidently understanding these four recommendations will enable you to select a SIP trunking provider that will advance your cloud communications initiative. A successful move to the cloud will be the result of researching the available SIP providers and holding them accountable to the criteria listed above.
