yankee group white paper sip trunking uc

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

SIP Trunking Is Key to Accelerating Unified Communications Deployments

by Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President | February 2009

This custom publication has been sponsored by Sprint and Nortel.

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:

•Dramaticallylowertheoverallcostofcommunications

•ExtendsUCtosoftware-as-a-service(SaaS)applicationsandothercloud-basedoptions

•AcceleratesUCdeploymentsthroughthesimplificationofnetworkdesign

•EasiermigrationtootheradvancedservicessuchasmobileintegrationandMPLSnetworks

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.

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


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

Table of Contents I. Introduction 3

Unified Communications Defined 3

II. The Business Benefits of Unified Communications 4

LowerTotalCostofOwnership 5

Increased Worker Productivity 6

UC Is Creating Communications-Enabled Business Processes 6

III. Adoption of Unified Communications 7

IV.OverviewofSIPTrunking 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

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

February 2009

I. Introduction

Organizationshavetorndowntheircorporatewallsandare

moving toward Yankee Group’s vision of becoming an Anywhere

Enterprise. That is a global company that is networked together and

comprises a variety of constituents. Employees, partners, suppliers

and customers are all important components of an Anywhere

Enterprise for virtually anytime, virtually anywhere access to people

and information. And their need to communicate faster and more

collaboratively over a variety of devices or mediums is greater than ever.

Overtime,organizationshavedeployedamyriadofcommunications

tools and devices to help people communicate better with

one another. These include telephony systems, conferencing,

collaboration tools and e-mail. Although these devices address the

need for faster communications, few of them are linked together.

This creates a manageability headache for the worker and prohibits

the organization from reaching its full potential.

To achieve their full potential, organizations require the ability to

communicate and collaborate better. Competitive advantage is

no longer about any single person or core capability. The entire

extended enterprise and the ability of each of its constituents to

communicate and collaborate with other in real time forms the

basis of competitive advantage today. This presents a challenge for

workers to reach more people in shorter periods of time with the

rightinformationattheirfingertips.Organizationshaveturnedto

unified communications (UC) as a method of meeting this challenge.

Those UC enterprise customers with carriers who have deployed IP

multimedia subsystems (IMS) services will find additional savings in

call routing and PSTN access reduction. Also, UC is now the vehicle

upon which integrated wireless solutions can attach. Up to this

point, wireless integration was often a stand-alone and sometimes

expensive adjunct to an IP PBX.

Unified Communications Defined

UC brings all of a company’s communications and collaborative

tools together. It is the convergence of all forms of audio, video,

Web and desktop communications that is built on an IP network

that breaks down all distance, time and media barriers. This enables

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.

UC consists of the following communications tools:

IP telephony/VoIP:• VoIP enables companies to use the

corporate data network for phone calls rather than having

a dedicated network just for telephone service. Historically,

VoIP was considered by many organizations as the foundation

of UC. However, during the past year presence and desktop

integration have been elevated to being critical to the success

of UC.

Presence:• This is the ability for users to understand another

user’s availability and willingness to communicate over a

variety of devices. This is common today for instant messaging

applications, but it will quickly be used to understand a user’s

status on phones, wireless devices, video conferencing and

other collaborative tools. Additionally, presence can be

extended to objects such as alarm systems, medical devices

and even documents.

Mobile client:• Enterprise mobility is rapidly becoming a key

driver for UC. A mobile client will be what mobilizes a UC

platform and puts the desktop in the hands of mobile users,

which makes up 40 percent of the workforce. The holy grail

of mobility will be when a worker can seamlessly access UC

applications anytime, on any device.

Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC):• FMC enables a worker

to seamlessly move calls between the desktop and the mobile

phone for voice call continuity. As the mobile workforce

grows, the ability to provide mobile integration will become a

key decision point for organizations evaluating UC solutions.

Integrated multimedia conferencing:• Conferencing

applications have existed for a number of years, but only

recently have the solutions become integrated into UC

solutions. Within the Yankee Group taxonomy, the following

services are included:

Video conferencing:• Longknownasanice-to-have,video

has become one of the main applications driving UC

deployments. Quality and ease of use have improved dramatically

allowing more users to take advantage of video communications.



Web conferencing:• This form of conferencing has become

popular within the last five years, due largely in part to ease

of use and accessibility. Audio and Web conferencing have

been the most widely adopted forms of converged conferencing.

Audio conferencing:• The more mature form of conferencing,

audio conferencing through the use of bridge lines is still the

most widely adopted form of conferencing. However, as this

space evolves, we will see audio become more integrated

into other forms of conferencing. Deploying an audio

conferencing system that is integrated into a UC solution

instead of using a telco-based bridge service has been one of

the most widely adopted components of UC. Yankee Group

research has seen companies recoup the investment in as

little as six months by shedding expensive bridge services.

IP network:• An IP network is required to deliver the

information and communications to users. IP is the only

protocol that is scalable and simple enough to make the

vision of UC a reality; it will be the common network for

the deployment of all communications systems. Although IP

is a dynamic, scalable technology it does require on going

optimization. Management of a network life cycle is critical

now as more applications are running on the network.

II. The Business Benefits of Unified Communications

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:

Lowertotalcostofownership•

Increase worker productivity •

Create new efficient business processes •

Improve customer satisfaction •

Each of these is described in greater detail further in this section.

Overtime,thefocusofthevaluepropositionhaschanged.Afew

years ago the primary driver for VoIP and UC revolved around cost

savings. Though cost savings still remains a big part of the decision

to move to UC, especially in a tough economic climate like we

have today, the real potential is as a foundation for fundamentally

changing business and building long-term competitive advantage

(see Exhibit 2).

As described earlier, organizations will get value from UC in the

following ways.

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

TCOBenefits

IT Process Improvement

Streamline Business Processes

Competitive Advantage

Enterprise Audio Conferencing

Instant Messaging

Voice over IP

UnifiedMessaging

Unified Communications


February 2009

LowerTotalCostofOwnership

Overtheyears,companieshaveaddedtotheportfolioof

corporate communications by deploying silo applications that

address one specific method of communicating. The traditional

desk phone, e-mail platform, mobile phone, video system and

other communications tools provide great value, but each of these

systems exists on its own and does not interoperate with any

othercorporateapplication.Obviously,havingtomanageeach

one of these tools discretely drives up the cost of the tool because

of redundant networks and hardware, separate management

tools and expensive support contracts for maintenance, and

administration of the voice systems.

Because of this, cost savings remains the No. 1 driver for UC

rollouts (see Exhibit 3).

TheYankeeGroupAnywhereEnterprise—Large:2008U.S.Fixed-

Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey revealed that 41

percent of respondents cited lower costs as the No. 1 reason to

deploy UC. The main methods of lowering costs using UC are

the following:

Reduction of network costs: • Historically, when

organizations deploy voice technology it is done on a node-

by-node basis. This means each office or branch locations

needs its own PBX equipment as well as its own trunk to

the public switch telephone network (PSTN), no matter

how small the office is. This can be a terribly expensive way

to deploy communications to an organization with multiple

offices. IP-based communications, such as UC, allows the

services to be deployed centrally in the corporate data

center and then distributed over the companies private

WAN allowing for reduced cost and greater efficiency of the

infrastructure. Additionally, the ability to repurpose and reuse

existing networks adds to the costs savings as well.

Lower maintenance costs: • PBX maintenance is typically

very expensive and comprises many factors. Maintaining

the hardware itself normally requires periodic upgrades,

which often require a field technician to perform. Also, user

management is often done by the PBX vendor or a local

interconnect. Unlike a PC or IP phone, a user cannot simply

pick up the phone and move it to a new location and have it

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

maintenance would be completely eliminated.Exhibit 3. 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?

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

LowerCosts

Provide Access to Information

Improve Customer Relationship

Modernize Communication Systems

Better Manage Communication Services

Increase Collaboration

Improve Customer Service

Support Remote Workers

Enhance Security

Enable More Remote Workers

Create/Automate New Business Processes

ImproveWork/LifeBalance

No Near-Term Plans to Implement

n=344Percent of Respondents

41

27

27

26

25

24

22

22

16

16

14

11

3



Reduced long-distance calls:• In a typical deployment

model of traditional communications, most companies spent

a fortune in long-distance calls between offices for employee-

to-employee communications. An IP-based system deployed

over a corporate WAN makes these on-net calls essentially

free. Aside from the monthly fees for the core services, these

calls do not incur any additional costs since the corporate

WAN is usually a fixed recurring cost for the bandwidth and

voice calls are treated as data similar to any other data need.

Additionally, when making a call to a person off the network,

companies can design the system to automatically route the

call from the cheapest possible location. For example, if a

US based worker were placing a call to a UK number, the

call would traverse the private corporate network to the

company’s UK office where it would be routed as a local call.

Yankee Group studies have seen companies reduce long-

distance costs significantly by using VoIP. An IT manager from

a large global law firm stated, “We began our VoIP rollout last

year and we saw about a 70 percent reduction in long-distance

toll charges. Instead of using the PSTN for calls, the calls have

been replaced with a combination of VoIP calls and instant

messenger.”

These are the three main categories of cost savings for companies

who choose to deploy UC. Depending on how the deploying

organization wants to change the way people work, there are

other cost savings to be gained such as reduction in office space

by allowing more workers to telecommute, more efficient use of

IT time or even a reduction in IT staff and savings related to green

initiatives. However, even the most conservative of companies will

find significant cost savings through the deployment of UC.

Increased Worker Productivity

As mentioned earlier, the historical focus of UC was to help

companies reduce the overall cost of communications. During the

past few years though, the value proposition for UC has shifted to

increasing worker productivity. Much of this is through being able

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

on multiple systems. The worker then must retrieve information

from all of these systems, which can waste a significant amount of

time. Most workers waste a huge amount of time trying to manage

information to and from other workers. A series of one-on-one

interviews with employees that spend more than 20 percent of

their time away from their primary workplace revealed that mobile

workers spend about 25 percent of their time simply retrieving

or leaving information using the various communications tools—a

huge time waster that most workers cannot afford. UC creates

a single interface into all of a worker’s communications tools and

users can set preference to inform others which is the best way to

communicate with them.

Overall,UCcanhelpworkersbemoreproductivebyreducingthe

net amount of “human latency” involved in communicating with

each other.

UC Is Creating Communications-Enabled Business Processes

Overtime,UCcomponentswillbeembeddedintoapplications

rather than being stand-alone applications. This will give rise to

a new way of working utilizing communications-enabled business

processes (CEBP) to provide increased customer satisfaction.

A CEBP is a process in which much of the communications flow

has been optimized or fully automated removing all of the human

latency that exists today for immediate access to resolve customer

issues. For example, in a typical hospital environment a patient

condition may trigger an alarm. A clinician sitting at a central

monitoring station would then see the alarm and look through

some papers that would indicate who the responsible doctor or

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

the individual who is at the monitoring station would then need to

manually look through a skills database to identify who the best

individuals are, determine which ones are available and then begin

theprocessalloveragain.Obviously,thiskindofhumandelayina

hospital could have life-or-death consequences.


February 2009

Using a CEBP built on UC, the monitoring system would

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

of time, the system would look through the skills database and

identify the best person whose presence status is set to “available”

and then contact that individual with a text message, automated

voice message, instant message, e-mail or any other medium that is

set as a preference. In this particular example there was no human

interaction needed to find and engage the best person, meaning the

patient gets the best possible care in as short a time as possible.

Organizationsthatarewillingtostreamlineorcreatenew

business process with UC at the center will find that workers can

reach new levels of productivity by having faster access to more

information and more people. CEBPs not only boost individual

employee productivity, but also streamline an entire organization’s

day-to-day operations.

III. Adoption of Unified Communications

Despite the excitement of UC, adoption remains spotty for a

variety of reasons. Many companies perceive UC to be the next

step after VoIP, which means that the UC rollout will come after

VoIP.TheYankeeGroupAnywhereEnterprise—Large:2008U.S.

Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey showed that

whileapproximately85percentoforganizationshaveVoIPdeployed

somewhere in the organization, only about 10 percent have it

deployed across the organization. This means UC is still to come for

many companies. Companies heading down this path should actually

rethink this decision and make VoIP part of the UC rollout instead

of a separate implementation.

Another reason why UC adoption has been slow to date is that

the definition of UC is very broad so almost all companies have

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 ConferencingSource: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise—Large: 2008 U.S. Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey

Which of the following UC applications have you deployed?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Room-Based Video Conferencing

UnifiedMessaging(OneInboxforE-Mail,VoiceMail,Fax,etc.)

Corporate Instant Messenger

Telecommuter SolutionsVoIP Applications Running on an IP Phone

(e.g., a Trader’s Application in the Financial Services)

Soft Phones (PC-Based Phones)

Desktop Video Conferencing

Location-BasedServices

Mobile Phone IntegrationDesktop Application with Voice or Communications Integrated into It

TelepresenceOtherPresence-BasedApplications

(OtherthanIM)Speech Recognition Applications

n=145

In-House Audio Conferencing

Web Conferencing

Percent of Respondents

59

53

48

47

44

41

41

40

38

32

28

23

19

74

71



Questionsrelatedtototalcostofownership(TCO)andreturn

oninvestment(ROI)arealsoreasonsthatcompanieshaven’t

aggressively rolled out UC because the value for both cost savings

and increased productivity have been hard to quantify. Some of

the cost savings are relatively easy to calculate if corporations

understand the calling patterns of the worker, understand how

workers collaborate and have kept good records of mobile usage.

However, without a solid baseline, few companies have the ability

to calculate the overall costs savings. The same can be true for

productivity benefits. Without a good understanding of how

workers use communications as part of their everyday job, it’s

difficult to help those workers alter current business process or

even augment it with UC to help boost productivity. However, more

case studies and best practices are being developed every day, and

we believe that within the next 24 months companies deploying UC

will gain a significant advantage over competition. Not deploying UC

will create much greater risk to the organization than any risk or

cost associate with deploying it.

Onefinalreasonthatorganizationshavenotaggressivelyrolledout

UC is the complexity of the overall deployment. VoIP and UC aren’t

difficult to deploy if the right network services are in place and

determining ahead of time which services a company would want to

support prior to the deployment of UC. The reasons deployments

can get complex is that often many of the decisions around what

to do with the network, how to support mobile workers and

how to manage quality are all made after production deployment.

Therefore, any changes need to be made in a “live” environment—a

risky endeavor. Network managers should keep two main points in

mind when designing a network to support VoIP and UC.

A holistic approach to the network is required.• That

means the network manager needs to consider not only

thelocal-areanetwork(LAN),butalsothechoiceofWAN

protocols, the last mile that is used to connect to the local

phone system to the corporate network

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 UCSource: Yankee Group Anywhere Enterprise—Large: 2008 U.S. Fixed-Mobile Convergence/IP Communications Survey

Whichofthefollowingunifiedcommunicationsapplicationsdoyou feel will provide the most productivity improvement?

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Room-Based Video Conferencing

UnifiedMessaging(OneInboxforE-Mail,VoiceMail,Fax,etc.)

Corporate Instant Messenger

Telecommuter Solutions

VoIP Applications Running on an IP Phone(e.g., a Trader’s Application in the Financial Services)

Soft Phones (PC-Based Phones)

In-House Audio Conferencing

Location-BasedServices

Mobile Phone Integration

Desktop Application with Voice or Communications Integrated into it

TelepresenceOtherPresence-BasedApplications

(OtherthanIM)

Speech Recognition Applications

n=344

Desktop Video Conferencing

Percent of Respondents

24

24

18

18

18

15

15

11

11

10

8

8

5

30


February 2009

To simplify the deployment of UC, maximize value and increase

adoption, network managers should consider Session Initiation

Protocol (SIP) trunking as a key to connecting to the advanced

network services needed to have a successful implementation

IV.OverviewofSIPTrunking

SIP trunking services from network operators have been

commercially available on the market since 2005, but deployments

have been limited for a couple of reasons. First, the overall

awareness of SIP trunking is relatively low. Yankee Group

interviewed 20 network managers on an individual basis during the

past year and only three of them fully understood what SIP trunking

is and how it works. Second, the incumbent network operators

have been very passive in articulating the value proposition of SIP

trunking to customers since the consolidation of multiple PSTN

trunks down to one SIP trunk greatly threatens to cannibalize the

legacy TDM revenue stream of the incumbent operators.

OncenetworkmanagersfullyunderstandwhatSIPtrunkingis

and the value it provides, connecting over this method will be one

of the easiest decisions involved in the deployment. However,

understanding SIP trunking is the first step in overcoming this barrier.

Understanding SIP Trunking

In traditional telephony, the local phone operator would deliver

telephony services over a wire, or a “trunk,” that would connect

the corporate PBX to the PSTN. This physical trunk made up of

multiple channels would carry the phone calls from the corporation

to the PSTN allowing the company to have phone service. SIP

trunking allows companies to replace these physical cables with

“virtual SIP trunks” that are deployed over a data connection. This

could be a dedicated line, a shared connection with a data service or

companies can even use the Internet for connectivity.

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

user voice sessions that can be carried over a SIP trunk (other than

bandwidth) where a traditional PSTN trunk limited the number of

calls to the number of channels available (typically 24 per trunk).

SIP trunking scales by bandwidth. Need more calls to go through?

Increase the bandwidth of the connection instead of deploying

another physical one. Also, in addition to voice services, many of

the UC services can be more efficiently deployed over SIP. Chat

services, presence, conferencing, application sharing and video can

all be delivered over SIP trunking.

SIP trunking also allows organizations to extend VoIP past the

physicalLAN,wheremostofthedeploymentsaretoday.This

removes the need for organizations to purchase costly gateways,

bridges or other equipment that help connect the corporate UC

environment to the PSTN. That connectivity is done in the network

of the network operator, which means the enterprise does not have

to incur the cost.

OverallSIPtrunkingisasimple,cost-effectivemethodofincreasing

the value of the UC rollout. Companies that choose to utilize SIP

trunking will realize the following benefits. SIP trunking will:

Allow organizations to extend UC to the cloud and removes •

the need for expensive gateways

Help companies dramatically lower the overall cost of the •

UC deployment

Allow companies to eventually migrate to a SaaS-based •

offering if they choose to down the road

Provide a gateway to other advanced services that can enhance •

UCsuchaswirelessintegrationandMPLSnetworks

What to Consider in a Solutions Provider

Companies that have done their homework will find that the

decision to use SIP trunking as a way to create a scalable, pain-free

deployment will find the decision an easy one. SIP trunking is the

most cost-effective method of doing this and creates scale far past

what PSTN trunking can do. The question will then become which

network operator is best and what should be considered when

making the decision? While every situation is unique, the following

should be considered when deciding on SIP trunking provider.

Best-in-ClassMultiprotocolLabelSwitching(MPLS)Network

OneofthekeystodeployingUCismaintainingqualityacrossthe

WAN. SIP trunking can provide an IP-based connection to the

cloud, but the service provider still needs to maintain the quality

across the cloud. This can only be done with a service provider

thathasanMPLSnetworkthatwasbuiltfromanall-IPbackbone.

ManynetworkoperatorsclaimtohaveanMPLSnetworkbutin

practicality it has been partially built on a layer two network or the

deploymentsarenotcomplete.Abest-in-classMPLSnetworkwill

allow more of the critical UC services to be placed in a high-value

“class of service” to ensure quality.



OwnershipofBothWiredandWirelessAssets

Mobile phone integration will be a key component of any UC

deployment. An operator that owns only the wired or wireless

networkcanonlyprovidehalfofthesolution.Ownershipofbothcan

help minimize most potential issues surrounding mobile integration.

SIP Compliance and Commercial Availability

Almost every network operator out there will talk about SIP

trunking when asked about it. However, because of the large

revenue stream associated with legacy services, incumbent

operators will often try and steer customers away from SIP

trunking.Often,itmaymakesensetouseanalternateservice

provider for at least part, if not the majority of the deployment as

an alternative provider is more likely to have a more robust SIP offering.

Strong Reference Design

Obviouslythereismoretoasuccessfuldeploymentthanjust

SIPtrunkingservices.HowtheSIPtrunksconnecttotheMPLS

network, overall network design and scale are all keys to a

successful deployment. Any service provider that is going to be a

viable network partner needs to have a strong, proven reference

design from which to build the implementation on.

Broad Set of Managed and Professional Services

Most network managers that are looking at UC will never have been

involved with a deployment like this before. To assist the enterprise

in having a successful UC deployment, the service provider needs

to have a robust set of managed and professional services than

can assist with the deployment across the entire deployment life

cycle. From the initial design, testing, preparation, installation and

optimization, all need to be areas of expertise for the service provider.

Best-in-Class Partnerships with Premises Vendors

The focus of this report is how to utilize a set of critical network

services to have a successful UC deployment, but the solution still

needs to interoperate with the premises equipment with which the

service is built upon. The network operator needs to have world-

class partnerships with all of the major UC hardware and software

providers to ensure the correct knowledge base and certifications

are in place to guarantee a painless implementation.

None of the above criteria are more or less important than

the other. All of them must be considered when choosing a SIP

trunking service provider that can act as a partner for the deploying

organization. The right choice will ensure a successful UC rollout

that saves money and boosts worker productivity.

V. Sprint Nextel + Microsoft + Nortel = A Case Study in Success

Sprint Nextel Corporation (Sprint), a telecommunications company

headquarteredinOverlandPark,Kansas,offersawiderangeof

communications services to consumers, business and government,

(e.g., mobile data services, instant national/international push to talk

and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone). Until recently, however, the

company’s own internal communications systems were considerably

less dynamic than the ones it offered to its own customers—a

classic example of the cobbler’s children going without shoes.

In Sprint’s case, the company’s aging traditional PBX infrastructure

could not keep up with an increasingly mobile workforce. It turned

to a UC solution to reduce the overall cost of ownership as well as

increase worker productivity. Sprint’s PBX deployment was a typical

multisite deployment with nearly 500 offices having their own

dedicated PBX to provide call control and two dedicated PRI trunks

to connect to the PSTN. Each location also had a dedicated WAN

connection for other corporate IP-based applications and Internet access.

For voice calling, each call went out over one of the two PRI

trunks out to the PSTN, a typical configuration of traditional PBX-

based calling. All other corporate applications such as e-mail, ERP

applications and other IP-based applications were centrally located

in the Sprint headquarters and then delivered over the WAN to the

branch locations.

When Sprint decided to migrate to UC, it turned to Microsoft and

Nortel who through their Innovative Communications Alliance

(ICA) partnership offer a UC solution with tightly integrated call

control, messaging, and productivity and collaboration apps. With

this set of tools, Sprint chose to deploy UC like any other corporate

IP-based application with the applications and voice call control

hosted in the corporate data center. Each of the other almost 500

offices would access UC from the data center over WAN. This

would remove the need for all of the almost 1,000 PRI connections

being used to support calling from the offices.


February 2009

Sprint created the solution as follows:

MicrosoftOCSwasdeployedcentrallyintheSprintHQ•

data center. This provided the users with all of the rich UC

functions such as presence, chat, unified messaging and other

capabilities.

Nortel Communication Server (CS) 2100 provided the •

call control for voice dialing. Sprint also deployed Nortel’s

multimedia conferencing server for conferencing services and

a new corporate dialer for external users. Again, these servers

were centrally located in the data center.

Sprint-based SIP trunking for connecting the nearly 500 offices •

totheMPLSbasedWANwiththebandwidthoftheSIPtrunks

being based upon the traffic needs.

Sprint-basedMPLSnetworkforconnectingthebranchesto•

the cloud to access the call control and to provide redundancy.

Benefits to Sprint

Sprint realized many current and future benefits to this

implementation in both cost savings and productivity gains. Exhibit 6

outlines many of the main benefits to Sprint.

Exhibit 6 references only the costs savings that could be measured.

In addition to these Sprint also realized the following qualitative

benefits:

Higher overall system uptime:• Historically, PBXs have

been very reliable—five-nines in most cases—so it was a

common belief among IT executives in the industry that

moving to an IP-based system would only threaten that

reliability. By designing the network to be fully redundant

throughacombinationofMPLSandwirelessnetworking,Sprint

can achieve six-nines of uptime, for virtually nonstop operations.

Better work/life balance: • This is achieved by allowing

workers to telecommute and create flexible work hours. A

centralized UC deployment would ensure that all employees

have access to the same applications and information no

matter where they are located. Additionally, Sprint will be able

to reduce office occupancy and space and lower commute

times—two activities that can lower carbon emissions, making

UC a very “green” technology.

By deploying UC, Sprint was able to recognize significant cost

savings, improve worker productivity and employee morale through

the use of flexible work time and make Sprint an overall more

green organization.

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

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 $1.8Million

Savings Removal of PRI with SIP Trunks $6 Million

Improved Productivity*

Individual and Workgroup Improvement Through Collaboration $20 Million

Benefit DetailAmount (per year)

*$20 million is an estimate from Sprint based on process improvement through the removal of human latency



VI. Conclusions and Recommendations

Deploying UC can help organizations lower cost as well as

improve worker productivity. If deployed strategically, it can also

help companies redefine business processes and leapfrog the

competition. However, the deployment of UC should be a well

thought out, strategically planned initiative that involves breaking

the status quo on traditional deployment models for communication

services. With that in mind, companies looking to deploy UC should

consider the following guidelines:

Break the status quo and migrate to SIP trunking.•

SIP trunking is a simple, cost-effective method of increasing

the value of the data network and leveraging any investment

already made in VoIP. SIP trunking can provide a simpler

migration path to UC and open the door to mobile integration

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.Organizationsshouldcreateabudgetlineitem

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.

Look to deploy a multivendor environment. • There is no

one single vendor that can deliver all things UC, and heading

down the deployment path with a single vendor will probably

lead to problems down the road. Evaluators of UC solutions

should look for vendor partnerships such as the Microsoft and

Nortel Innovative Communications Alliance as a way to deliver

best-of-breed functionality from multiple vendors.

Use managed and professional services to augment •

the current skill set. Few companies have the necessary

skills internally to complete a UC implementation. IT

organizations can augment their skill set by utilizing a partner-

managed or professional services offerings. This will help

deliver the whole life cycle of UC while minimizing the risk

of having a new infrastructure that cannot be adequately

supported by internal IT staff.

© Copyright 2009. Yankee Group Research, Inc. Yankee Group published this content for the sole use of Yankee Group subscribers. It may not be duplicated, reproduced or

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All opinions and estimates herein constitute our judgment as of this date and are subject to change without notice.

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