As businesses across the United Kingdom prepare to make the leap to 100% VoIP phone services, one decision that needs to be made is about SIP trunks.
This may leave you wondering what these are. You may be thinking, “How many SIP trunks do I need?”
In this post, we’re going to answer all of your questions about SIP trunking and help you figure out how many you need for your office. Keep reading to learn more.
What Are SIP Trunks?
To better understand how many SIP trunks you need for your company, you first need to know what they are and how they work.
SIP stands for session initiation protocol. A trunk can be compared to a traditional phone line on which you can only make one phone call at a time. However, since these are digital, it’s far easier to scale up and down as needed.
How Many SIP Trunks Do I Need?
Although it may seem like you’re going to need one SIP trunk for every current phone line, this may not be accurate. You may also have heard the rule-of-thumb that you should have one trunk for every three employees.
The truth is, every business has different phone needs. To figure out how many SIP trunks your company needs, there are three things to consider.
Type of Business
The first thing to think about is the type of business you’re running and how essential phone calls are to its daily operations. This will have a huge impact on how many SIP trunks you need.
For example, if you’re running a large factory, you don’t need a SIP trunk for every three employees because the vast majority of them won’t be making phone calls regularly enough.
If you have a call centre, on the other hand, you’ll likely need a trunk for each employee since they’ll be spending the majority of their time on the phone. Your customers will also need to be taken care of as quickly as possible without having to wait for available phone lines.
Number of Employees
Once you know which of your employees will need to be able to make and receive phone calls, you can look at the number of them. Even if your employees don’t primarily work on the phone, they’ll still need to all have the ability to use the phones as needed.
Call Volume
The call volume will also help you decide how many SIP trunks you need. If it frequently happens that all of your employees are on the phone at the same time, you’ll need a higher ratio of trunks to workers.
Fortunately, VoIP services are flexible so you can easily add SIP trunks as needed or even eliminate some if you find you have more than necessary.
Learn More About Your SIP Trunking Options
Now you know the answer to the question, “How many SIP trunks do I need?” As you can see, it’s going to be different for every business owner but is easy to determine by looking at a few factors.
We would love to help you figure out the right number of SIP trunks for you.
To learn more about your SIP trunking options and what our VoIP services can do for you and your company, contact us today.