When it comes to IP phone systems, Managed Service Providers are missing opportunities
to increase value to their clients in a variety of ways.
The Issue
IP phone systems are replacing traditional systems for a variety of reasons. The primary of which is feature sets. IP systems provide a much richer set of features than a traditional business phone system, including IVR, enhanced voicemail, and advanced call routing options. Like their older cousins, premise-based IP phone systems are largely being ignored by managed service providers. Why? Typically, it’s because the phone system is still managed and supported by the manufacturer or manufacturers rep who provided it. The MSP may simply see it as a device on the network. Understanding a bit more about how premise-based phone systems are architected may offer the MSP additional opportunities to add value to the relationship with their client and add profit to their bottom line.
The Great Carrier Mistake
- Lines – I’ve always said that plugging a PRI or pots lines from the phone company into an IP phone system is like driving a Ferrari 60 mph. Yet many premise-based IP phone systems we see are still utilizing traditional phone lines.The most common reasons we hear when we ask why is:
- We were under contract with our old lines, so the phone company gave us a deal to continue to use or upgrade our existing service.
- We don’t want to use the internet to transport our voice and data. We like keeping the services separate.
While the phone system will operate fine with a PRI or pots line, all of the flexibility and cost savings that could be realized by switching to SIP-based calling is lost. Phone numbers are attached to lines in the traditional sense. With SIP, the numbers live separately and can be added, removed, and modified without making any change to the physical media to which it’s attached.
- Scalability – When an IP based system uses traditional lines, it means adding more lines as the business grows. With SIP, it simply means bumping up the bandwidth to allow for more concurrent calls. Employees can be added and removed without having to add or remove phone numbers.
- Disaster Recovery – In the event of an outage, the system isn’t reliant upon the phone line itself to make and take calls. Call routing can be set up in the system to redirect call traffic over an alternate SIP trunk or even cell phone.
As the resident LAN expert, MSP’s add value by being able to advise their clients on the benefits and drawbacks of using traditional lines with their IP PBX. By partnering with a VoIP and SIP expert, MSP’s can further leverage IP telephony technology to their advantage and add monthly recurring revenue in the process.
N2Net specializes in working with MSP’s to add maximum value to their clients’ voice and data services. Find out more below.
