10 Reasons why SIP is logical for a 50 person company

By Harvey Barkin
Updated: January 30, 2011

It makes sense to get Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for a 50 person company because it can often be just an add-on upgrade to your existing system and your internet-savvy users and will require little training. It can also cut your costs in equipment, maintenance and long-distance calls.

SIP has been around since 1995, and in the ensuing years, it has been the choice for signaling by the VoIP industry. Logically, SIP is a good choice to work with business that have existing data networks in place.

10 reasons why you should get SIP:

1. SIP is a protocol just like the World Wide Web and e-mail. Your Internet-using business can readily accommodate SIP and give you multi-feature communication options for a bigger company.
2. Like URL and e-mail message, SIP is global with specific name source and destination, ensuring your message reaches your party wherever their location.
3. You can replace bulky telephone equipment and its central station taking up extra storage space with software. Two SIP sources can communicate without intervening infrastructure.
4. You can get most software supporting SIP for free. The JAVA standard for SIP is in the public domain.
5. Your VoIP vendor will likely allow you to use your own SIP devices. So you don’t have third party or required devices/purchase issues.
6. Aside from its easy interface with the web and e-mail, SIP is desirable because it can work with other protocols and give you applications that your traditional telephone system can’t, including file transfer, on-line games, streaming multimedia distribution and instant messaging.
7. Your business conferences can now include video options even as those with audio only options are allowed to participate. And you can modify your features during the conference.
8. As Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and cell phones move beyond 4G, SIP becomes more standard and opens new channels for increased potentials.
9. SIP works simply: it starts, ends and modifies a session (think phone call). You can command it to do other things and you can continuously modify it and get more use out of it before you downgrade it.
10. SIP is better than the front office gal or a sleepy grave-yard shift attendant. Your SIP-equipped surveillance system can detect and flag motion within its protected arc after hours.

Given the facility that SIP adapts to Internet and e-mail protocols, some would think that it is the Swiss Army knife of modular networking. That it can do everything.

But SIP is not God in the machine. For one, SIP has firewall restrictions. While SIP can enable new applications, just like many Internet protocols, it can get bogged down with interface problems. You’ll have to upgrade the whole SIP software to seamlessly integrate a new functionality. Or migrate to Skype or H.323.