Should Your Business Use Cloud PBX or SIP trunks
Increasingly more businesses are turning to IP voice services, which rely on the Internet to make and receive business calls – and for good reason, too. Voice services are an incredibly powerful tool in any business’ arsenal, providing the operation with a more robust, flexible, easy to control, and cost-effective means of communication than traditional phone lines.
There are two main options: Cloud PBX and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking.
Today we’re going to define Cloud PBX and SIP trunking, including their benefits, and explore how you can decide which one is best for your business.
What is Cloud PBX?
We’ve spoken about the benefits of Cloud PBX here and here, but to briefly recap, this service is a software-based system that lives in the cloud and integrates with your office and mobile phones. In a Cloud PBX solution, the vendor hosts and operates the private branch exchange (PBX) functionality that manages call routing, voice mail, and other applications virtually, in the cloud.
Why you would choose Cloud PBX:
- Constant Connecting: Living in the cloud means that regardless of what’s happening (riots, inclement weather, power cuts) you won’t lose information, you can still take customer calls remotely from wherever you’re located, and even reroute calls to a more appropriate destination if necessary.
- Professionalise: Access to features like call recording, IVR, call waiting, custom voice prompts to automated customer services conference calling, and more, means that you can upgrade the customer experience and deliver superior customer service.
- Stay Mobile: Make or receive extension calls at any time, from anywhere, and on any device (mobile app, laptop or IP phone) with features like call routing.
- Scalability: As the business grows, you can add or remove features as they become useful and necessary, making hosted voice perfectly scalable with your growth trajectory.
- Data Rich Decisions: Collect data about your business’s calls and analyse factors like average call time and call volume by time of day so that you can make data-driven decisions around your customer communications and interactions.
What is SIP?
SIP is an open-source communications protocol installed on your own phone system and deployed by VoIP phone systems. SIP trunking uses SIP to establish voice and video calls between end points, replacing your traditional phone system and enabling you to benefit from fewer connections with much more functionality and flexibility.
Why you would choose SIP trunking:
- Highly Flexible: SIP uses integration-friendly protocol software, meaning that other software can be used to achieve specific goals. For example, VoIP calls running on SIP can be automatically recorded using third-party software.
- Compatible: Being integration-friendly, you’re unlikely to have issues using other SIP-compatible software to expand the functionality of your phone system.
- Quality-First: SIP can negotiate different supported CODECS between SIP endpoints, which can provide the best compromise between good quality calling and minimum bandwidth utilisation. Modern high-definition CODECS, like OPUS, are designed to provide very high quality calls over the internet, and deploy intelligent methods of adjusting the call quality as the available bandwidth increases or decreases during a conversation.
So, What’s the Difference?
Both SIP trunking and Cloud PBX can simplify network management and lower IT costs by allowing you to consolidate voice, video, and data traffic across a single network infrastructure. That said, there are key differences. Namely, that with SIP trunking you could save more on a monthly basis by retaining your investment in legacy (PBX) kit, while Cloud PBX focuses more on moving your PBX off site and into the cloud, on a subscription based model..
Additionally, with SIP trunking you install and own the infrastructure of your service, whereas with Cloud PBXyou don’t purchase or manage the call routing infrastructure yourself. You simply pay a monthly fee for this to be managed and maintained on your behalf.
How to Choose the Right Service
Once you’ve decided to switch to using an internet connection to make your business calls, you’ll need to choose between the various voice services available. We’ve hopefully helped you understand the two main options available – Cloud PBX and SIP trunking.
To further assist you, we’ve highlighted three key considerations, the first being the size and type of your business. Generally, SIP trunking is better suited for businesses still riding out their investment in legacy PBX equipment.
The second main factor is whether you need control of your own phone system in your own data centre or private cloud. With SIP trunking, you can integrate with your existing PBX system, routing calls from your office to relevant extensions, all the while continuing to own and manage it and benefitting from access to VoIP features. Alternatively, Cloud PBX offers increased mobility and remote working, what with most of the phone systems capabilities being managed in the cloud via an online portal.
Lastly, you should think about the payment model, because SIP trunking and Cloud PBX have two very different payment models. You see, to install SIP you must have your own phone system. This means that there is an upfront investment for hardware, whereas with Cloud PBX, you don’t have a significant hardware purchase upfront. Instead you pay a monthly fee as it is a subscription-based model, making it more scalable than a legacy PBX. Cloud PBX can grow with you without the need to add more ports and licenses along the way.
What we’ve outlined here are simple key considerations, however it’s worth noting that there are many others. There are several additional features and functionality of both, which could tip the balance of either in your favour – depending on your particular needs.
Huge Connect is uniquely positioned to provide bespoke connectivity solutions that will improve the availability, security, and performance of your business. Moreover, we can strategically develop a solution that results in business savings and improves productivity across the whole business.
Connect with us and let us help you today.
