Yankee Group White Paper Sip Trunking Uc

SIP Trunking Is Key to Accelerating Unified
Communications Deployments

by Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President | February 2009

Executive Summary

Companies today are undergoing a significant transformation to a more global Anywhere Enterprise™. Unified communications (UC) is a crucial

component in this evolution and organizations look to collaborate better with an extended enterprise (see Exhibit 1 on the next page). UC

has the power to help companies lower the overall cost of communications, bring worker productivity to new levels, enhance corporate green

initiatives and completely redefine the way we work by becoming part of our application infrastructure.

However, the deployment of UC is not without its challenges. Too often, organizations go down the path of deploying new technology with old

technology principles in mind and UC is no different. Many of the early adopter deployments of VoIP and UC were designed exactly the same as

the old systems, severely limiting the overall value of UC, which is a highly flexible, IP-based solution.

Migrating from traditional trunk lines to SIP trunking is a very simple, cost-effective change to open doors to other advanced services that can

enhance a UC deployment. SIP trunking will allow companies to recognize the following benefits:

• Dramatically lower the overall cost of communications

• Extends UC to software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and other cloud-based options

• Accelerates UC deployments through the simplification of network design

• Easier migration to other advanced services such as mobile integration and MPLS networks

This report introduces the reader to UC, outlines the benefits of UC and highlights some of the challenges in deployment. The report also

introduces the reader to SIP trunking and how it can play a key role in accelerating the deployment of UC as well as provides recommendations

on how to evaluate SIP trunking providers and some thoughts for initial deployment.

This custom publication has been sponsored by Sprint and Nortel.

© Copyright 2009. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

SIP Trunking Is Key to Accelerating Unified Communications Deployments

Table of Contents
I. Introduction 3
Unified Communications Defined 3
II. The Business Benefits of Unified Communications 4
Lower Total Cost of Ownership 5
Increased Worker Productivity 6
UC Is Creating Communications-Enabled Business Processes 6
III. Adoption of Unified Communications 7
IV. Overview of SIP Trunking 9
Understanding SIP Trunking 9
What to Consider in a Solutions Provider 9
V. Sprint Nextel + Microsoft + Nortel = A Case Study in Success 10
Benefits to Sprint 11
VI. Conclusions and Recommendations 12

Exhibit 1.
Communications in the Anywhere Enterprise
Source: Yankee Group, 2009

E-Mail
Pager
Mobile Phone
Desktop
Video Audio
Conferencing
Your Business
Web
Conferencing

Suppliers Back Front Customers Fax
SCM ERP CRM
Office Office

Employees
Collaboration Voice Mail
Software

Messaging
Software Laptop
3 4 5 6 7 8
1 2 9
W E R T Y U I O
0
Q P
+ - = : ' "
* /
D F G H J K
@
A S L
; ? ,
$ $ .
—
X C V B N M CAP
Z
SYMBOL

PDA
Phone
Room-Based
Video
3 4 5 6 7 8
1 2 9
W E R T Y U I O
0
Q P
+ - = : ' "
* /
D F G H J K
@
A S L
; ? ,
$ $ .
—
X C V B N M CAP
Z
SYMBOL

2 © Copyright 2009. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved.

February 2009

I. Introduction UC consists of the following communications tools:

Organizations have torn down their corporate walls and are • IP telephony/VoIP: VoIP enables companies to use the
moving toward Yankee Group’s vision of becoming an Anywhere corporate data network for phone calls rather than having
Enterprise. That is a global company that is networked together and a dedicated network just for telephone service. Historically,
comprises a variety of constituents. Employees, partners, suppliers VoIP was considered by many organizations as the foundation
and customers are all important components of an Anywhere of UC. However, during the past year presence and desktop
Enterprise for virtually anytime, virtually anywhere access to people integration have been elevated to being critical to the success
and information. And their need to communicate faster and more of UC.
collaboratively over a variety of devices or mediums is greater than ever. • Presence: This is the ability for users to understand another
Over time, organizations have deployed a myriad of communications user’s availability and willingness to communicate over a
tools and devices to help people communicate better with variety of devices. This is common today for instant messaging
one another. These include telephony systems, conferencing, applications, but it will quickly be used to understand a user’s
collaboration tools and e-mail. Although these devices address the status on phones, wireless devices, video conferencing and
need for faster communications, few of them are linked together. other collaborative tools. Additionally, presence can be
This creates a manageability headache for the worker and prohibits extended to objects such as alarm systems, medical devices
the organization from reaching its full potential. and even documents.

To achieve their full potential, organizations require the ability to • Mobile client: Enterprise mobility is rapidly becoming a key
communicate and collaborate better. Competitive advantage is driver for UC. A mobile client will be what mobilizes a UC
no longer about any single person or core capability. The entire platform and puts the desktop in the hands of mobile users,
extended enterprise and the ability of each of its constituents to which makes up 40 percent of the workforce. The holy grail
communicate and collaborate with other in real time forms the of mobility will be when a worker can seamlessly access UC
basis of competitive advantage today. This presents a challenge for applications anytime, on any device.
workers to reach more people in shorter periods of time with the • Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC): FMC enables a worker
right information at their fingertips. Organizations have turned to to seamlessly move calls between the desktop and the mobile
unified communications (UC) as a method of meeting this challenge. phone for voice call continuity. As the mobile workforce
Those UC enterprise customers with carriers who have deployed IP grows, the ability to provide mobile integration will become a
multimedia subsystems (IMS) services will find additional savings in key decision point for organizations evaluating UC solutions.
call routing and PSTN access reduction. Also, UC is now the vehicle
upon which integrated wireless solutions can attach. Up to this • Integrated multimedia conferencing: Conferencing
point, wireless integration was often a stand-alone and sometimes applications have existed for a number of years, but only
expensive adjunct to an IP PBX. recently have the solutions become integrated into UC
solutions. Within the Yankee Group taxonomy, the following
Unified Communications Defined services are included:

UC brings all of a company’s communications and collaborative • Video conferencing: Long known as a nice-to-have, video
tools together. It is the convergence of all forms of audio, video, has become one of the main applications driving UC
Web and desktop communications that is built on an IP network deployments. Quality and ease of use have improved dramatically
that breaks down all distance, time and media barriers. This enables allowing more users to take advantage of video communications.
people to communicate with each other virtually anywhere,
any time, over any device. UC improves the manageability and
effectiveness of the ecosystem and makes the enterprise more
responsive and agile, which enables it to ultimately gain an advantage
over the competition.

© Copyright 2009. Yankee Group Research, Inc. All rights reserved. 3


• Web conferencing: This form of conferencing has become II. The Business Benefits of Unified
popular within the last five years, due largely in part to ease Communications
of use and accessibility. Audio and Web conferencing have
been the most widely adopted forms of converged conferencing. UC is valuable on many levels. It is one of the few technologies that
can fulfill on the promise of any IT project. Specifically, UC can:
• Audio conferencing: The more mature form of conferencing,
audio conferencing through the use of bridge lines is still the • Lower total cost of ownership
most widely adopted form of conferencing. However, as this
• Increase worker productivity
space evolves, we will see audio become more integrated
into other forms of conferencing. Deploying an audio • Create new efficient business processes
conferencing system that is integrated into a UC solution
• Improve customer satisfaction
instead of using a telco-based bridge service has been one of
the most widely adopted components of UC. Yankee Group Each of these is described in greater detail further in this section.
research has seen companies recoup the investment in as
little as six months by shedding expensive bridge services. Over time, the focus of the value proposition has changed. A few
years ago the primary driver for VoIP and UC revolved around cost
• IP network: An IP network is required to deliver the savings. Though cost savings still remains a big part of the decision
information and communications to users. IP is the only to move to UC, especially in a tough economic climate like we
protocol that is scalable and simple enough to make the have today, the real potential is as a foundation for fundamentally
vision of UC a reality; it will be the common network for changing business and building long-term competitive advantage
the deployment of all communications systems. Although IP (see Exhibit 2).
is a dynamic, scalable technology it does require on going
optimization. Management of a network life cycle is critical As described earlier, organizations will get value from UC in the

now as more applications are running on the network. following ways.

Exhibit 2.
The All-Around Value of UC
Source: Yankee Group, 2009

Unified Communications
Competitive
Advantage
Unified Messaging
Streamline
Business Processes
Voice over IP
IT Process
Improvement
Instant Messaging

Enterprise Audio Conferencing TCO Benefits


February 2009

Lower Total Cost of Ownership • Reduction of network costs: Historically, when
organizations deploy voice technology it is done on a node-
Over the years, companies have added to the portfolio of by-node basis. This means each office or branch locations
corporate communications by deploying silo applications that needs its own PBX equipment as well as its own trunk to
address one specific method of communicating. The traditional the public switch telephone network (PSTN), no matter
desk phone, e-mail platform, mobile phone, video system and how small the office is. This can be a terribly expensive way
other communications tools provide great value, but each of these to deploy communications to an organization with multiple
systems exists on its own and does not interoperate with any offices. IP-based communications, such as UC, allows the
other corporate application. Obviously, having to manage each services to be deployed centrally in the corporate data
one of these tools discretely drives up the cost of the tool because center and then distributed over the companies private
of redundant networks and hardware, separate management WAN allowing for reduced cost and greater efficiency of the
tools and expensive support contracts for maintenance, and infrastructure. Additionally, the ability to repurpose and reuse
administration of the voice systems. existing networks adds to the costs savings as well.

Because of this, cost savings remains the No. 1 driver for UC • Lower maintenance costs: PBX maintenance is typically
rollouts (see Exhibit 3). very expensive and comprises many factors. Maintaining
the hardware itself normally requires periodic upgrades,
The Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise—Large: 2008 U.S. Fixed-
which often require a field technician to perform. Also, user
Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey revealed that 41
management is often done by the PBX vendor or a local
percent of respondents cited lower costs as the No. 1 reason to
interconnect. Unlike a PC or IP phone, a user cannot simply
deploy UC. The main methods of lowering costs using UC are
pick up the phone and move it to a new location and have it
the following:
work. A third party must come in and reconfigure the PBX
when a user moves, is added or removed from the system. In
an IP environment, most of the maintenance costs go away.
In fact, with a software-based approach even the hardware
Exhibit 3. maintenance would be completely eliminated.
UC Deployment Drivers
Source: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise—Large: 2008 US Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey

What are the top three reasons why you would implement new
mobility and IP communications technologies and services?
Lower Costs 41
Provide Access to Information 27
Improve Customer Relationship 27
Modernize Communication Systems 26
Better Manage Communication Services 25
Increase Collaboration 24
Improve Customer Service 22
Support Remote Workers 22
Enhance Security 16
Enable More Remote Workers 16
Create/Automate New Business Processes 14
Improve Work/Life Balance 11
No Near-Term Plans to Implement 3
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Percent of Respondents n=344



• Reduced long-distance calls: In a typical deployment on multiple systems. The worker then must retrieve information
model of traditional communications, most companies spent from all of these systems, which can waste a significant amount of
a fortune in long-distance calls between offices for employee- time. Most workers waste a huge amount of time trying to manage
to-employee communications. An IP-based system deployed information to and from other workers. A series of one-on-one
over a corporate WAN makes these on-net calls essentially interviews with employees that spend more than 20 percent of
free. Aside from the monthly fees for the core services, these their time away from their primary workplace revealed that mobile
calls do not incur any additional costs since the corporate workers spend about 25 percent of their time simply retrieving
WAN is usually a fixed recurring cost for the bandwidth and or leaving information using the various communications tools—a
voice calls are treated as data similar to any other data need. huge time waster that most workers cannot afford. UC creates
Additionally, when making a call to a person off the network, a single interface into all of a worker’s communications tools and
companies can design the system to automatically route the users can set preference to inform others which is the best way to
call from the cheapest possible location. For example, if a communicate with them.
US based worker were placing a call to a UK number, the
Overall, UC can help workers be more productive by reducing the
call would traverse the private corporate network to the
net amount of “human latency” involved in communicating with
company’s UK office where it would be routed as a local call.
each other.
Yankee Group studies have seen companies reduce long-
distance costs significantly by using VoIP. An IT manager from UC Is Creating Communications-Enabled
a large global law firm stated, “We began our VoIP rollout last Business Processes
year and we saw about a 70 percent reduction in long-distance
toll charges. Instead of using the PSTN for calls, the calls have Over time, UC components will be embedded into applications
been replaced with a combination of VoIP calls and instant rather than being stand-alone applications. This will give rise to
messenger.” a new way of working utilizing communications-enabled business
processes (CEBP) to provide increased customer satisfaction.
These are the three main categories of cost savings for companies A CEBP is a process in which much of the communications flow
who choose to deploy UC. Depending on how the deploying has been optimized or fully automated removing all of the human
organization wants to change the way people work, there are latency that exists today for immediate access to resolve customer
other cost savings to be gained such as reduction in office space issues. For example, in a typical hospital environment a patient
by allowing more workers to telecommute, more efficient use of condition may trigger an alarm. A clinician sitting at a central
IT time or even a reduction in IT staff and savings related to green monitoring station would then see the alarm and look through
initiatives. However, even the most conservative of companies will some papers that would indicate who the responsible doctor or
find significant cost savings through the deployment of UC. nurse is. Then that doctor or nurse would need to be located or
paged to respond to the issue. If the person is not available then
Increased Worker Productivity
the individual who is at the monitoring station would then need to
As mentioned earlier, the historical focus of UC was to help manually look through a skills database to identify who the best
companies reduce the overall cost of communications. During the individuals are, determine which ones are available and then begin
past few years though, the value proposition for UC has shifted to the process all over again. Obviously, this kind of human delay in a
increasing worker productivity. Much of this is through being able hospital could have life-or-death consequences.
to make finding and communicating with someone a much simpler
task by having a single interface to all of a worker’s communications
tools. In today’s environment, it’s common for a worker to have a
mobile phone, e-mail application, multiple instant messaging clients,
desk phone, home office phone and other communications tools
such as audio or Web conferencing. Someone trying to locate
this person would often have no idea which is the best way to
reach this worker and leaves multiple messages for the worker


February 2009

Using a CEBP built on UC, the monitoring system would III. Adoption of Unified Communications
automatically trigger an alert that is sent to a nurse’s or doctor’s
mobile handheld devices. If there is no response in a defined period Despite the excitement of UC, adoption remains spotty for a
of time, the system would look through the skills database and variety of reasons. Many companies perceive UC to be the next
identify the best person whose presence status is set to “available” step after VoIP, which means that the UC rollout will come after
and then contact that individual with a text message, automated VoIP. The Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise—Large: 2008 U.S.
voice message, instant message, e-mail or any other medium that is Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey showed that
set as a preference. In this particular example there was no human while approximately 85 percent of organizations have VoIP deployed
interaction needed to find and engage the best person, meaning the somewhere in the organization, only about 10 percent have it
patient gets the best possible care in as short a time as possible. deployed across the organization. This means UC is still to come for
many companies. Companies heading down this path should actually
Organizations that are willing to streamline or create new rethink this decision and make VoIP part of the UC rollout instead
business process with UC at the center will find that workers can of a separate implementation.
reach new levels of productivity by having faster access to more
information and more people. CEBPs not only boost individual Another reason why UC adoption has been slow to date is that
employee productivity, but also streamline an entire organization’s the definition of UC is very broad so almost all companies have
day-to-day operations. deployed one or more of the components of UC without having
a formal UC rollout under way. Exhibit 4 shows that the majority
of applications that would fall under the UC umbrella are related
to conferencing. In-house audio, Web and room-based video
conferencing all show very high penetration rates, and unified
messaging also shows a deployment of more than half the install base.

Exhibit 4.
UC Adoption Current Revolves Around Conferencing
Source: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise—Large: 2008 U.S. Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey

Which of the following UC applications have you deployed?
In-House Audio Conferencing 74
Web Conferencing 71
Room-Based Video Conferencing 59
Unified Messaging 53
(One Inbox for E-Mail, Voice Mail, Fax, etc.)
Corporate Instant Messenger 48
Telecommuter Solutions 47
VoIP Applications Running on an IP Phone 44
(e.g., a Trader’s Application in the Financial Services)
Soft Phones (PC-Based Phones) 41
Desktop Video Conferencing 41
Location-Based Services 40
Mobile Phone Integration 38
Desktop Application with Voice or 32
Communications Integrated into It
Telepresence 28
Other Presence-Based Applications 23
(Other than IM)
Speech Recognition Applications 19
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80



Questions related to total cost of ownership (TCO) and return One final reason that organizations have not aggressively rolled out
on investment (ROI) are also reasons that companies haven’t UC is the complexity of the overall deployment. VoIP and UC aren’t
aggressively rolled out UC because the value for both cost savings difficult to deploy if the right network services are in place and
and increased productivity have been hard to quantify. Some of determining ahead of time which services a company would want to
the cost savings are relatively easy to calculate if corporations support prior to the deployment of UC. The reasons deployments
understand the calling patterns of the worker, understand how can get complex is that often many of the decisions around what
workers collaborate and have kept good records of mobile usage. to do with the network, how to support mobile workers and
However, without a solid baseline, few companies have the ability how to manage quality are all made after production deployment.
to calculate the overall costs savings. The same can be true for Therefore, any changes need to be made in a “live” environment—a
productivity benefits. Without a good understanding of how risky endeavor. Network managers should keep two main points in
workers use communications as part of their everyday job, it’s mind when designing a network to support VoIP and UC.
difficult to help those workers alter current business process or
• A holistic approach to the network is required. That
even augment it with UC to help boost productivity. However, more
means the network manager needs to consider not only
case studies and best practices are being developed every day, and
the local-area network (LAN), but also the choice of WAN
we believe that within the next 24 months companies deploying UC
protocols, the last mile that is used to connect to the local
will gain a significant advantage over competition. Not deploying UC
phone system to the corporate network
will create much greater risk to the organization than any risk or
cost associate with deploying it. • Wireless integration need to be considered prior to
deployment and not be an afterthought. With more
and more workers becoming mobile, integration with mobile
phones will be one of the keys to a successful deployment.
Exhibit 5 shows that respondents believed that mobile phone
integration will be one of the top three applications that create
the biggest productivity boost.
Exhibit 5.
Productivity Benefits of UC
Source: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise—Large: 2008 U.S. Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey

Which of the following unified communications applications do
you feel will provide the most productivity improvement?
Unified Messaging
(One Inbox for E-Mail, Voice Mail, Fax, etc.) 30
Mobile Phone Integration 24
Telecommuter Solutions 24
Desktop Application with Voice or 18
Communications Integrated into it
Desktop Video Conferencing 18
Corporate Instant Messenger 18
VoIP Applications Running on an IP Phone 15
(e.g., a Trader’s Application in the Financial Services)
Soft Phones (PC-Based Phones) 15
Room-Based Video Conferencing 11
In-House Audio Conferencing 11
Location-Based Services 10
Speech Recognition Applications 8
Telepresence 8
Other Presence-Based Applications 5
(Other than IM)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35


February 2009

To simplify the deployment of UC, maximize value and increase SIP trunking also allows organizations to extend VoIP past the
adoption, network managers should consider Session Initiation physical LAN, where most of the deployments are today. This
Protocol (SIP) trunking as a key to connecting to the advanced removes the need for organizations to purchase costly gateways,
network services needed to have a successful implementation bridges or other equipment that help connect the corporate UC
environment to the PSTN. That connectivity is done in the network
IV. Overview of SIP Trunking of the network operator, which means the enterprise does not have
SIP trunking services from network operators have been to incur the cost.
commercially available on the market since 2005, but deployments Overall SIP trunking is a simple, cost-effective method of increasing
have been limited for a couple of reasons. First, the overall the value of the UC rollout. Companies that choose to utilize SIP
awareness of SIP trunking is relatively low. Yankee Group trunking will realize the following benefits. SIP trunking will:
interviewed 20 network managers on an individual basis during the
past year and only three of them fully understood what SIP trunking • Allow organizations to extend UC to the cloud and removes
is and how it works. Second, the incumbent network operators the need for expensive gateways
have been very passive in articulating the value proposition of SIP
• Help companies dramatically lower the overall cost of the
trunking to customers since the consolidation of multiple PSTN
UC deployment
trunks down to one SIP trunk greatly threatens to cannibalize the
legacy TDM revenue stream of the incumbent operators. • Allow companies to eventually migrate to a SaaS-based
offering if they choose to down the road
Once network managers fully understand what SIP trunking is
and the value it provides, connecting over this method will be one • Provide a gateway to other advanced services that can enhance
of the easiest decisions involved in the deployment. However, UC such as wireless integration and MPLS networks
understanding SIP trunking is the first step in overcoming this barrier.
What to Consider in a Solutions Provider
Understanding SIP Trunking
Companies that have done their homework will find that the
In traditional telephony, the local phone operator would deliver decision to use SIP trunking as a way to create a scalable, pain-free
telephony services over a wire, or a “trunk,” that would connect deployment will find the decision an easy one. SIP trunking is the
the corporate PBX to the PSTN. This physical trunk made up of most cost-effective method of doing this and creates scale far past
multiple channels would carry the phone calls from the corporation what PSTN trunking can do. The question will then become which
to the PSTN allowing the company to have phone service. SIP network operator is best and what should be considered when
trunking allows companies to replace these physical cables with making the decision? While every situation is unique, the following
“virtual SIP trunks” that are deployed over a data connection. This should be considered when deciding on SIP trunking provider.
could be a dedicated line, a shared connection with a data service or
companies can even use the Internet for connectivity. Best-in-Class Multiprotocol Label Switching
(MPLS) Network
SIP trunking can deliver much more value to a company than a
traditional PSTN trunk. First, there’s no real limit to the number of One of the keys to deploying UC is maintaining quality across the

user voice sessions that can be carried over a SIP trunk (other than WAN. SIP trunking can provide an IP-based connection to the

bandwidth) where a traditional PSTN trunk limited the number of cloud, but the service provider still needs to maintain the quality

calls to the number of channels available (typically 24 per trunk). across the cloud. This can only be done with a service provider

SIP trunking scales by bandwidth. Need more calls to go through? that has an MPLS network that was built from an all-IP backbone.

Increase the bandwidth of the connection instead of deploying Many network operators claim to have an MPLS network but in

another physical one. Also, in addition to voice services, many of practicality it has been partially built on a layer two network or the

the UC services can be more efficiently deployed over SIP. Chat deployments are not complete. A best-in-class MPLS network will

services, presence, conferencing, application sharing and video can allow more of the critical UC services to be placed in a high-value

all be delivered over SIP trunking. “class of service” to ensure quality.



Ownership of Both Wired and Wireless Assets None of the above criteria are more or less important than
the other. All of them must be considered when choosing a SIP
Mobile phone integration will be a key component of any UC trunking service provider that can act as a partner for the deploying
deployment. An operator that owns only the wired or wireless organization. The right choice will ensure a successful UC rollout
network can only provide half of the solution. Ownership of both can that saves money and boosts worker productivity.
help minimize most potential issues surrounding mobile integration.
V. Sprint Nextel + Microsoft + Nortel = A
SIP Compliance and Commercial Availability Case Study in Success
Almost every network operator out there will talk about SIP Sprint Nextel Corporation (Sprint), a telecommunications company
trunking when asked about it. However, because of the large headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, offers a wide range of
revenue stream associated with legacy services, incumbent communications services to consumers, business and government,
operators will often try and steer customers away from SIP (e.g., mobile data services, instant national/international push to talk
trunking. Often, it may make sense to use an alternate service and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone). Until recently, however, the
provider for at least part, if not the majority of the deployment as company’s own internal communications systems were considerably
an alternative provider is more likely to have a more robust SIP offering. less dynamic than the ones it offered to its own customers—a
classic example of the cobbler’s children going without shoes.
Strong Reference Design
In Sprint’s case, the company’s aging traditional PBX infrastructure
Obviously there is more to a successful deployment than just
could not keep up with an increasingly mobile workforce. It turned
SIP trunking services. How the SIP trunks connect to the MPLS
to a UC solution to reduce the overall cost of ownership as well as
network, overall network design and scale are all keys to a
increase worker productivity. Sprint’s PBX deployment was a typical
successful deployment. Any service provider that is going to be a
multisite deployment with nearly 500 offices having their own
viable network partner needs to have a strong, proven reference
dedicated PBX to provide call control and two dedicated PRI trunks
design from which to build the implementation on.
to connect to the PSTN. Each location also had a dedicated WAN
Broad Set of Managed and Professional Services connection for other corporate IP-based applications and Internet access.

Most network managers that are looking at UC will never have been For voice calling, each call went out over one of the two PRI
involved with a deployment like this before. To assist the enterprise trunks out to the PSTN, a typical configuration of traditional PBX-
in having a successful UC deployment, the service provider needs based calling. All other corporate applications such as e-mail, ERP
to have a robust set of managed and professional services than applications and other IP-based applications were centrally located
can assist with the deployment across the entire deployment life in the Sprint headquarters and then delivered over the WAN to the
cycle. From the initial design, testing, preparation, installation and branch locations.
optimization, all need to be areas of expertise for the service provider.
When Sprint decided to migrate to UC, it turned to Microsoft and
Nortel who through their Innovative Communications Alliance
Best-in-Class Partnerships with Premises Vendors
(ICA) partnership offer a UC solution with tightly integrated call
The focus of this report is how to utilize a set of critical network control, messaging, and productivity and collaboration apps. With
services to have a successful UC deployment, but the solution still this set of tools, Sprint chose to deploy UC like any other corporate
needs to interoperate with the premises equipment with which the IP-based application with the applications and voice call control
service is built upon. The network operator needs to have world- hosted in the corporate data center. Each of the other almost 500
class partnerships with all of the major UC hardware and software offices would access UC from the data center over WAN. This
providers to ensure the correct knowledge base and certifications would remove the need for all of the almost 1,000 PRI connections
are in place to guarantee a painless implementation. being used to support calling from the offices.


February 2009

Sprint created the solution as follows: Exhibit 6 references only the costs savings that could be measured.
In addition to these Sprint also realized the following qualitative
• Microsoft OCS was deployed centrally in the Sprint HQ
benefits:
data center. This provided the users with all of the rich UC
functions such as presence, chat, unified messaging and other • Higher overall system uptime: Historically, PBXs have
capabilities. been very reliable—five-nines in most cases—so it was a
common belief among IT executives in the industry that
• Nortel Communication Server (CS) 2100 provided the
moving to an IP-based system would only threaten that
call control for voice dialing. Sprint also deployed Nortel’s
reliability. By designing the network to be fully redundant
multimedia conferencing server for conferencing services and
through a combination of MPLS and wireless networking, Sprint
a new corporate dialer for external users. Again, these servers
can achieve six-nines of uptime, for virtually nonstop operations.
were centrally located in the data center.
• Better work/life balance: This is achieved by allowing
• Sprint-based SIP trunking for connecting the nearly 500 offices
workers to telecommute and create flexible work hours. A
to the MPLS based WAN with the bandwidth of the SIP trunks
centralized UC deployment would ensure that all employees
being based upon the traffic needs.
have access to the same applications and information no
• Sprint-based MPLS network for connecting the branches to matter where they are located. Additionally, Sprint will be able
the cloud to access the call control and to provide redundancy. to reduce office occupancy and space and lower commute
times—two activities that can lower carbon emissions, making
Benefits to Sprint UC a very “green” technology.

Sprint realized many current and future benefits to this By deploying UC, Sprint was able to recognize significant cost
implementation in both cost savings and productivity gains. Exhibit 6 savings, improve worker productivity and employee morale through
outlines many of the main benefits to Sprint. the use of flexible work time and make Sprint an overall more
green organization.

Exhibit 6.
UC Combined with SIP Trunking Benefits to Sprint
Source: Yankee Group and Sprint, 2009

Amount
Benefit Detail (per year)

Savings Elimination of PBX Maintenance $1 Million

Savings Travel Reduction $15 Million

Savings Reduction in Project Completion Time $15 Million

Savings Shortened Sales Cycle $5 Million

Savings Reduced Toll and Conferencing Costs $1.8 Million

Savings Removal of PRI with SIP Trunks $6 Million

Improved Individual and Workgroup Improvement $20 Million
Productivity* Through Collaboration
*$20 million is an estimate from Sprint based on process improvement through the removal of human latency



VI. Conclusions and Recommendations • Look to deploy a multivendor environment. There is no
one single vendor that can deliver all things UC, and heading
Deploying UC can help organizations lower cost as well as down the deployment path with a single vendor will probably
improve worker productivity. If deployed strategically, it can also lead to problems down the road. Evaluators of UC solutions
help companies redefine business processes and leapfrog the should look for vendor partnerships such as the Microsoft and
competition. However, the deployment of UC should be a well Nortel Innovative Communications Alliance as a way to deliver
thought out, strategically planned initiative that involves breaking best-of-breed functionality from multiple vendors.
the status quo on traditional deployment models for communication
services. With that in mind, companies looking to deploy UC should • Use managed and professional services to augment
consider the following guidelines: the current skill set. Few companies have the necessary
skills internally to complete a UC implementation. IT
• Break the status quo and migrate to SIP trunking. organizations can augment their skill set by utilizing a partner-
SIP trunking is a simple, cost-effective method of increasing managed or professional services offerings. This will help
the value of the data network and leveraging any investment deliver the whole life cycle of UC while minimizing the risk
already made in VoIP. SIP trunking can provide a simpler of having a new infrastructure that cannot be adequately
migration path to UC and open the door to mobile integration supported by internal IT staff.
and hosted services.

• Think client/server when deploying UC. As companies
plan their UC deployments, network managers should plan
to eventually migrate the deployment to a client/server
architecture. This means eventually the servers that enabled
UC should be located in the corporate data center alongside
all the other mission-critical applications such as ERP systems
and databases. This type of architecture should be kept in mind
whether it’s a greenfield deployment, the organization chooses
to upgrade its existing PBXs as an interim step or in a “rip and
replace” deployment model.

• Start deploying UC immediately. Although many think
that UC should be layered on top of VoIP, UC can be run with
or without VoIP. Do not pass up on such benefits as presence,
advanced messaging and collaboration applications, which
can be recognized today with a hybrid (i.e., non-VoIP) UC
deployment. Organizations should create a budget line item
for UC where it is funded partially from the areas of mobility,
telecom and voice and network infrastructure. This will allow
companies to create a UC budget without having to commit
new money to it.


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