A couple days ago I wrote an article titled SIP Trunking is Hot! where I wrote about the SIP trunking session sponsored by Ingate, which was very heavily attended (75). A few hours later I noticed SmithonVoIP blogger Garrett Smith write a blog entry called No One Wants SIP Trunking. It was obvious to me he must have seen my blog post which was pro-SIP trunking and he was taking a counterpoint.Before I even clicked through on my RSS reader to Garrett's article, I pondered why Garrett would take such a counterpoint. I know for a fact that there is a lot of interest in SIP trunking. A thought popped in my head that Garrett works for VoIP Supply which sells IP-PBXs and perhaps SIP trunking with hosted PBX functionality 'could' be a threat to VoIP Supply's business. Thus, perhaps Garrett was trying to downplay the importance of SIP trunking. But I know Garrett and I've never known him to have a hidden agenda in any of his writings. He speaks his mind and calls it the way he sees it, just like me.
So then I click through and read his article. The gist is that Garrett isn't anti-SIP trunking - just that he doesn't like the name or how it is marketing. Garrett explains:
Why do service providers and the industry at large insist on calling a phone line delivered over an IP network a “SIP Trunk”?
Customers do not want SIP trunks, they want business phone lines delivered via IP.
It is funny that no one outside of the industry knows what the heck a SIP trunk is, yet every company that provides IP based business phone lines continues to use this nomenclature.
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Businesses do not know what a SIP trunk is and honestly they really do not care. They are not looking for SIP trunks.
What they are looking for is reliability, quality and low cost telephone service. The transport mechanism is secondary.
Garrett does have a point to a certain extent. Many customers don't care what SIP is and just want inexpensive calling rates over an IP connection. That said, there is huge interest in the VAR, reseller, and interconnect channel to learn about SIP trunking, the complexities, the QoS concerns & how to address them, who are the major players, SIP-aware hardware/firewalls, etc. My guess is the SIP Trunking Workshop sponsored by Ingate had a huge number of VARS/resellers/interconnects attending. I'm sure there were customers as well.
I ran into Dan York, formerly of Mitel and now with Voxeo told him about Garrett's post and I asked his opinion on SIP trunking. Dan was very high on SIP trunking and pointed out that the last ITEXPO's SIP Trunking session was also jammed packed. Update: Also just noticed Greg interviewed several VoIP players in his SIP Trunking Sessions Strikes a Chord post. Greg also seemed to notice like I did that SIP trunking is a very hot topic at ITEXPO. Greg writes, "I had the chance to speak with Olle Westerberg CEO, Ingate, Steve Johnson, president of Ingate, Anne Coulombe, who handles SIP product marketing for Avaya’s Solutions Marketing Division, Sean Rivers, channel account manager at Bandwidth.com, and Joel Maloff, the newly installed director of marketing at Bandtel." Go check out his blog for more details.
Garrett's blog title, "No One Wants SIP Trunking" isn't exactly true, since like I said there is huge interest in the channel. I do agree with him though that many customers don't care. That said, I'm glad TMC's educational conferences are at the very "top" -- training & educating the IP communications channel (VARS/resellers/interconnects) on SIP trunking. That knowledge will eventually "trickle down" to the customer when the channel explains to the customer the benefits of SIP trunking. Of course, the customer may simply filter out the technical details and focus on the bottom line. Maybe for the next ITEXPO we'll call it the "SIP/IP Trunking Workshop." Clear enough for ya Garrett?
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Tom - I agree with Garrett, and I believe his sentiment there should be interpreted as "SIP Trunking" is simply not part of the vernacular for the end user, and not likely to be.
I've no formal training in marketing, but if I were a provider of SIP Trunking I'd task my marketing folks with finding a more sensible way to describe the product/service. One that might resonate with consumers. "IP POTS" is a lousy example of a potential alternative, but you get what I'm saying...
As an aside, we also work with both providers of premise based solutions, as well as IP centrex type players, and I see plenty of room in the market for both. I honestly do not see a great deal of real contention currently between these two camps. That may very well play out at some point in the future, but we're a long ways off from that day.
There is a customer demographic for hosted and a customer demographic for premise based, and companies I speak with who are in the midst of due diligence rarely seem to be "on the fence", and I talk to lots of them every day. This is simply my perspective and I won't claim emphatically that it is indicative of the market as a whole.
I see many technical challenges for SIP trunking, but I am extremely optimistic they will be met...and tighter collaboration and knowledge transfer within the vendor and var community will only accelerate progress. There are too many smart people in the industry, guys like Henry Kaestner from Bandwidth.com and many others, for this technology to fail to realize its potential.
I also see many marketing challenges for SIP trunking, which are a completely different set of concerns and should be discussed, strategized and tackled not by engineers but by marketing folks.
As a technology, SIP Trunking is indeed hot. As a terminology that should serve as the basis for sustained advertising efforts directed at consumers, it's cold.
I am definitely not anti-business phone line over IP, I just think that more companies (and the marketers at the companies) need to realize the distinct difference between what the industry calls something and what the end user calls something.
Marketers in this industry need to take a hard look at how they are positioning their products to consumers. Businesses do not buy terminology, they buy solutions. No one outside of the industry uses the term SIP trunking. The industry seems to think that it is a sexy term, but businesses could care less.
I heard a lot of great things about the sessions as well and definitely feel they are well worth attending. The sessions and your post was not my issue, it was the use of a term for marketing purposes that no one outside of the industry uses. Consider it more of a public service announcement, than a denouncement of the technology, sessions or your post.
>>Consider it more of a public service announcement, than a denouncement of the technology, sessions or your post.
No worries, I didn't take it as a denouncement of my post once I clicked through and read what you wrote. The title made me wonder is you disagreed before I clicked through however. your post gave me an opportunity to examine the state of SIP trunking and is customers care.
As I said in my post, you're absolutely right, customers don't care about SIP trunking. But VARs, resellers (VoIP Supply included) have huge interest in SIP trunking. VoIP Supply is pretty tech savvy, so probably doesn't need to attend SIP trunking educational seminars.
But as I'm sure you're aware their are a lot of old school VARs/resellers, etc. that don't know much about SIP trunking. Those must have been the majority of the 75 people in the SIP trunking session. I'll have to ask the sponsor Ingate. Maybe we'll all be in for a shock and find that 80% of them were IT/MIS folk looking to upgrade their phone system and deploy SIP trunks!
No one was right or wrong here, I was just exploring the various facets of SIP trunking both from the customer perspective and the channel that you sparked with your post. Thanks for the blog fodder!
Interesting debate - I agree no-one knows what SIP Trunking is - and it has been hard coining / using a term that can be understood - be it VoIP gateway or SIP gateway. But fundamentally a company that can offer you multiple ways of offering you a new phone system, or incorporating VoIP into your old one, is what the customers are after. Perhaps we should realise that most, are not after VoIP either - they just want a business phone system that works and saves them money.