Let’s start with some basic definitions: “SIP” (Session Initiated Protocol) is a signaling protocol designed for initiating interactive user sessions over a data connection. A “trunk” is a circuit between switching systems that can carry a specific number of calls at a time. Your call center has a trunk today which carries the phone calls, and it is either a traditional “TDM Trunk” or a “SIP Trunk”. More and more call centers are switching over to the latter for cost savings, increased flexibility and advanced features.

What makes SIP trunking exciting is that you can have a single “pipe” from the call center to your carrier (and the worldwide phone system) that carries all your business traffic: Voice, video, and data.

Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf said:

It is my honest opinion that we have barely scratched the surface of the various applications to which SIP may be adapted. If we have seen 1% of the applications of SIP so far, then there are still 99% waiting to be invented, developed or deployed. The generality of SIP will make it a major workhorse of the Internet this century.

Read on to learn more about what SIP can do for your call center. Continue reading →