From February 2–4, ITEXPO was home to thousands of individuals seeking the latest IP communications solutions, VoIP services, and more on the bustling exhibit hall floor. The event was also a hotbed of learning, with any number of educational opportunities from informative sessions to training courses to the most popular element of the program, the SIP Trunking seminars sponsored by Ingate Systems.

 

I caught up with Ingate Systems’ president, Steven Johnson who shared his thoughts about the event, the participants, the trends and the lessons learned over three exciting days in February.

 

 

SJ: SIP trunking is a topic that’s on everyone’s minds. In today’s economy, technologies like SIP trunking can have a significant impact reducing communications costs quickly and enabling firms to adopt more advanced Unified Communications strategies to improve productivity.

 

Ingate’s SIP Trunk Seminars provided an educational, comprehensive overview of SIP trunking, and include general information panels and technical insight sessions from both the service provider and enterprise perspectives. We were honored to have industry leaders participate. These are the people driving the IP communications industry, and we were delighted to have them share their insights with the many interested attendees.

 

Speakers included leaders from AireSpring (News - Alert), Avaya, BandTel, Bandwidth.com, BBTelsys, Cbeyond, Digium, Iwatsu and ShoreTel. Thought leaders from J. Arnold & Associates, The SIP Forum and VoIP Security Alliance (VOIPSA) also participated.

 

In addition, Kool Smiles, a network of local dental offices with a mission to expand access to high quality dental care to underserved children and young adults, presented a case study of their own SIP trunk deployment. Kool Smiles reduced their communications costs by 40 percent with SIP trunks, with the complete installation, including a new IP-PBX (News - Alert), phones, network upgrades and the Ingate solution, paying for itself in twelve months.

 

These are the kinds of stories that businesses, carriers, VARs and everyone looking to maximize expenses in this economy are looking for. They illustrate real solutions that work.

 

SJ: In addition to the above, we were pleased to feature Jon Arnold of J. Arnold & Associates, who presented (with Marc Robins of the SIP Forum, Avaya, CableLabs and Ingate) a session for carriers who are interested in how SIP trunks can help them build their business. He also presented a Technology Survival Roadmap session, which was very well attended.

 

ShoreTel and Iwatsu (News - Alert) took on the challenge of setting up SIP trunks in 20 minutes right there, on-site, with Ingate (using SIP trunks provided by BandTel). The task turned out to be very easy, illustrating just how simple it can be to set up a SIP trunk in a new environment.

 

Additionally, the SIP Forum held a SIPconnect Best Practices Workshop, providing critical information on SIPconnect.

 

And very importantly, three speakers (from Cbeyond (News - Alert), BBTelsys and Intertex) presented their views on the future of SIP beyond simple POTS replacement. The highlighted applications included a demonstration of Unified Communications using video and instant messaging, as well as carriers speaking about encrypted SIP trunking and expanded SIP Trunking services.

 

SJ: The show exceeded my expectations in terms of the numbers of attendees and the interest and enthusiasm of the audience for the products and services that were showcased. For Ingate, the February SIP Trunking seminar series drew the largest attendance we’ve ever seen.

 

SJ: People are really looking for technology and services that will lower their operating costs as they prepare to weather lean financial times. ITEXPO is the show for people looking for Voice-over-IP solutions that accomplish this goal. And SIP trunking is a service that presents a concrete opportunity for savings.

 

SJ: Only positive ones. The attendance was larger than expected and the interest carried throughout the three days of events. We have had many inquiries from the audience about real deployments and we look forward to assisting these and our other customers in making SIP trunking a reality for their firms.

 

SJ: Yes we are. SIP trunking is a catalyst application that is causing enterprises to look at SIP-based communications seriously because of the significant savings that it can and does generate. But people are also asking about advanced solutions and Unified Communications and they are serious about moving toward IP telephony.

 

Since the show I have spoken with other partners and customers who confirm that not only are small- and medium-sized businesses looking at SIP trunking purely on a cost-savings basis, but large companies whose traditional PBXs are entering end-of-life status are turning to SIP trunking as a way to lower costs by integrating their networks and adopting productivity strategies based on SIP.

 

The return-on-investment case study that Kool Smiles presented demonstrates the power of SIP communications for large and widespread organizations and that scenario is playing out across the country with companies both large and small. Ingate is pleased to be working with TMC (News - Alert) as part of the educational process that is showcasing these solutions to enterprises and to offer these customers best-in-class solutions to both enable secure SIP trunking and allow the enterprise to retain control of their networks.