102 Timbertrace Ct. Columbia, SC 29212 1-866-IDEACOM (433-2266)www.ideacom.org

2011 ProfitGrowth Strategies, Inc.

insights

Vol. 3 No. 12

December 2011

How to Protect Your All-Important Business Number during a SIP Upgrade

The advantages of SIP trunking are too great to ignore.

for each office, how man

voicemail or WebFa

customized for your specif

select find me/follo

But when deploying a ne

ensure that it is ported o

corporate identity, and it should

your own personal identity. Think about what happens if

you lose your number: You will need to reinvest heavily in

changing the number on all of your corporate

communications. Clients that have not conducted business

with you in some time may not know about the change, and

will be unable to reach you. Changing your business contact

number can potentially cost your business revenue over

time.

So how do you protect your number, while gaining the

advantages of a SIP upgrade? The first step is to make sure

the SIP vendor you are considering is fully-versed in

number portability. Under the Federal Communications

if you remain in the same geographic area, you

ver Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers,

m one geographic area to another, however, you

oIP vendors have the ability to port in a

ut the reverse may not always be true, as a

lended approach to SIP trunking. Rather than replacing all

You can keep your main corporate

er porting issues. Then, you can move

bout 50% over traditional analog

SIP on the March

Infonetics Research forecast that SIP

trunking service revenue will hit an 89%

annual growth rate through 20131. The

reason that this technology is experiencing

such dramatic adoption is the fact that it is a

robust cost-cutting solution in a weak

economy. This technology can reduce your

phone line costs by 50% with no new capital

investment2.

102 Timbertrace Ct. Columbia, SC 29212 1-866-IDEACOM (433-2266)www.ideacom.org

2011 ProfitGrowth Strategies, Inc.

insights

Vol. 3 No. 12

December 2011

The blended method has the added advantage of taking a

distributed approac

communications. If

reason, the system c

SIP trunks to analog lines

one carrier goes dow

If you decide that p

the benefits of a new

Do not cancel se

Your new pr

provide the ne

code. If you had

You may hav

provider. You

contract to determine what fees or charges apply.

Be aware that once you request service from a new vendor, your old company may not refuse to port

your number, even if you owe money for an outstanding balance or termination fee.

The advantages of SIP trunking and other next-generation phone technology are driving up productivity and

driving down cost. You just need to take some simple precautions to minimize any disruption to your business

when making the jump to a new communications platform. In the end, the benefits you gain from your new

system will make the effort very worthwhile.

Services Growth," Infonetics Research,

highlights.asp

/interior.asp?nav=nWHATIS

ederal Communications Commission,

hanging-service-providers

ides/portability-keeping-your-phone-number-