The recent ebb and flow at the gas pump is a reminder that energy consumption is something that everyone is concerned about. In the spring and summer of 2008, North America experienced over six straight months of increasing gas prices, until gasoline was close to $4 per gallon around the country. Today’s gas prices are not quite as high, but the sky-high prices of the summer of 2008 will not soon be forgotten.

 

This historic jump in fuel pained consumers, for sure, and businesses were not exempt from feeling the impact of increased fuel costs on their bottom line. Now, with the economic slowdown in full swing, businesses of all sizes are looking for ways to leverage investments in technology to save on energy costs. Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) industry analyst Vanessa Alvarez noted that, “Enterprises today have either included, or are including, green initiatives into their business strategy, in part because of corporate social responsibility, in part for the more obvious, which is the cost savings behind being green.” Regardless of the industry or the geography, going green has become an unavoidable imperative for most businesses.

 

So, what does going green have to do with session border controllers (SBCs)? It turns out, quite a bit, actually. SBCs can provide cost savings on everything from reducing energy consumption to reducing CAPEX. Here are four examples to consider as you review the role technology plays in your green enterprise initiative:

 

Programs to support telecommuters and your team of road warriors decrease office-based energy consumption because they use the Internet to access enterprise IP resources using SIP-based handsets or PC softphones. In this example, the SBC provides a number of critical functions, including:

 

SBCs resolve protocol interoperability issues between various signaling protocols, such as SIP and H.323, allowing organizations to retain legacy IP telephony systems, while taking advantage of new services, such as SIP trunking. SIP trunking provides significant cost savings, enabling organizations to migrate to IP communications and hosted services without the need to rip and replace existing telephony solutions. The ability to reuse existing equipment and get the benefits of new, cost-saving tools makes the case for SBCs in your green initiative.

 

Rather than using proprietary hardware, some companies are starting to use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) servers to deliver IP telephony and/or other interactive communications services. SBCs can also be deployed on COTS hardware, providing significant value to highly distributed organizations that need to secure interconnected islands of voice, messaging and data.

 

Gone are the days when it took cabinet after cabinet filled with station and trunk cards to support the telephony needs of even mid-size corporations. Today, a 1U-high server can support thousands of users, consuming far less energy than traditional PBX cabinets. A 1U-high SBC can support tens of thousands of simultaneous SIP sessions — voice, video, presence, chat and instant messaging — while consuming only the energy required to operate a 100 watt light bulb. With rack space at a premium, this is a welcome relief to IT managers who manage not only the equipment, but also all of the associated power and HVAC that goes with it.

 

SBCs can also provide benefits to contact centers looking to go green. While many organizations have begun to outsource their contact centers to hosted providers, others are using remote agents as a way to gain efficiency. In both cases, SBCs enable the high-quality, secure, IP communications necessary for effective interaction between the customer and the agent fielding the call — whether the agent is at a corporate site, in a home office or at a hosted provider.

 

For instance, SBCs can route calls based on quality of service (QoS) metrics, choosing the path to the location with the most available bandwidth. SBCs also replicate VoIP sessions so that the interactions between customers and call agents, regardless of location, may be recorded for subsequent use whether to train new customer service agents or even to provide evidence in customer disputes.

 

Ultimately these capabilities make it possible for companies to distribute the customer service function in a manner that reduces their carbon footprint while saving money without compromising the overall quality of the customer service experience. For example, when JetBlue Airlines first offered telecommuting to its reservation agents in 2000, the airline employed 40 agents, seven supervisors and four support staffers. By 2006, the call center workforce had grown to 1,500 agents, with 80% of its reservation agents working from home. The company reports that the move to telecommuting has increased productivity while avoiding the use of expensive office space. Going green initiatives have saved JetBlue time and money and the airline actions illustrate how companies, both large and small, can use technology to be more energy efficient and use hosted IP telephony to provide superior customer service.

 

But why should you and your company commit to going green now? Enterprises that take energy-saving initiatives stand to reap tremendous benefits of greater efficiency and productivity now, and may also gain a better corporate image going forward. In addition to bringing considerable cost savings, going green may also provide your business with a competitive advantage. As energy and fuel prices continue to ebb and flow and spike — as we saw in 2008 — companies that take a green initiative now will be better prepared for a future where going green will no longer be considered an option, it will be an operational imperative, and SBCs are an important part of the overall energy-saving initiative.