DIY SIP: Is It Worth It?
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) calling is the process of transmitting voice calls over a SIP channel. SIP calling uses VoIP to move your analog call traffic over an internet connection. So how can you do a Do It Yourself SIP (DIY SIP) project? We’ll find out later. First, what benefits can businesses expect when they use SIP?
Why Businesses Consider DIY SIP
Businesses are embracing newer technologies, and SIP trunking is one of them. SIP trunking is taking over the business world. By 2030 the global SIP trunking services market is estimated to have reached a market value of slightly over $35 billion.
With SIP technology and SIP numbers, day-to-day communications become easier since chats, voice, and video calls are easily done. However, most businesses and people don’t know of the tremendous benefits DIY SIP has.
The following are some of the benefits that businesses can expect to get when they switch to DIY SIP.
Benefits of SIP Trunking
Cost-effective Communication
SIP trunking can help you save on your business phone bill. According to SearchUnifiedCommunications, companies can save up to 50% of what they pay for legacy trunks by simply consolidating trunks. They also get operational cost savings and decrease the number of trunk circuits due to the consolidated circuit.
- SIP calls benefit include the following;
- Make unlimited toll-free calls instead of per-minute charges
- Use your existing hardware that supports SIP instead of buying new expensive hardware
- Install SIP trunks cheaply and take advantage of low maintenance costs
- Improve your customer service since there’s no service disruptions. SIP calls will also help you do the following;
Scale Easily
DIY SIP makes it easier for you to expand and scale whenever the need arises. How so? Since SIP trunking doesn’t use physical lines like landlines, it uses the internet to make phone calls and video conferencing possible. Therefore, if your business needs more phone numbers due to expansion to new locations or hiring more people, you only need to configure SIP to add more lines.
Unify Your Communications
Business Insider reports that companies that use unified communications like SIP save up to 115 minutes a day per employee. In addition, those 115 minutes add up to $920,000 a year in savings for a company with 100 employees.
Imagine what an extra 115 minutes each day for every employee could do for your clients and your business.
That’s what SIP does; you create a unified virtual presence that lets you centralize your communications with SIP. As a result, you get increased productivity and efficiency as well as better collaboration. With SIP, every employee can be reachable through their smartphone.
Improve the Quality of Your Calls
Power outages and system failure can affect physical landlines when you need them most. In addition, system issues can make your phone calls of poor quality, which might cost your business.
However, SIP calling ensures that you can always receive calls during such scenarios. SIP calling uses redundancy which reroutes your calls to your other numbers or locations in case of failure in one location.
Routing all calls through your Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP-PBX) will save you from having to get any further configuration done. Therefore, you can add more than one number to your account, and calls from all the numbers will be routed through your SIP trunk.
H3: Improve User Experience
You don’t have to be a SIP expert because SIP accounts aren’t complicated. Since it’s a DIY SIP, you can easily set it up from a simple interface. The interface will help you manage your entire business phone system enabling you to add phone lines and extensions and do call routing.
H3: Improved Availability and Reliability
Studies have shown that over 90% of consumers use customer service as a factor when deciding to do business with a company. However, DIY SIP makes it easy for customers and other external parties to contact you promptly. Providing you with excellent communications and enhancing your customer experience.
Weather disruptions and power outages never affect SIP trunks. SIP numbers use the internet and keep backups so that you’re never offline for long periods, even if your internet connection goes down.
H3: Get More Features
SIP-based calls are available both domestically and internationally. You can get additional features, e.g., call forwarding, caller ID, and email voicemail.
SIP trunking has a feature called the pilot number concept. If a called ID number is unrecognized, it is set to a trunk number. That number is your pilot number and simplifies the configuration, ensuring there are no rejected outbound calls.
H2: How You Can Do It Yourself with a SIP Service
Setting up a SIP trunk yourself is possible. You can easily set up a cloud SIP service with any SIP-enabled PBX system. This is possible only if you have a VOIP gateway or a PBX. Ensure that your PBX is SIP capable. Here are the steps to set up a cloud SIP service with any SIP-enabled PBX system.
Prerequisites;
- A computer with an internet connection
- A compatible PBX platform, SIP trunk, and VoIP phone system account details
- Your IP address
Procedure;
- Get a Static Internet Address – Since you can’t use a Dynamic DNS hostname, you need a Static Internet Address to set up a cloud SIP service. Once you have your IP address, make sure it can be an endpoint for all inbound calls.
- Don’t use firewall rules – Ensure that there isn’t any firewall or NAT blocking the two servers you’re using and the SIP-enabled PBX. However, you can enable firewalls to limit traffic to the servers.
- Get a compatible PBX platform – This is a must-have if you want a SIP service. You can call your SIP company to make sure your SIP is PBX enabled.
- Ensure that IP-PBX is properly configured – once you have a number you want to use as a pilot number or a primary number. Head to the preferences and click SIP trunking to enable it. Finally, enter your IP-PBX’s address.
H2: What’s Next?
In this article, you’ve learned the benefits of a DIY SIP. The most crucial benefit is cost-effectiveness. You can save costs and get operational cost savings as well. Another benefit is SIPs reliability since it uses the internet and not physical landlines.
Finally, you’ve learned how you can easily set up your SIP.
To get started with a free SIP trunk account, head to SIP.US and register for your free account.