Lots of people have heard of VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) and wanted to learn more about its features, capabilities, and applications. Not very many have heard of SIP (session initiation protocol). I am directing this post to the non tech or person that has heard of it before but isn't sure about the potential pros and cons of the technology.

When it comes to telecom or telephony there are three types of technology. Analog, Digital, and VoIP are those three. Analog lines, also referred to as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service), support standard phones, fax machines, and modems. These are the lines typically found in your home or small office. Digital lines are found in large, corporate phone systems. VoIP is voice over the internet. Even though everything is moving in the direction of VoIP technology, unless you have the right checks and balances in place it can be extremely problematic. I'm not going to spend time here going into all the potential problems, however these issues need to be resolved before implementation. Most businesses could not afford to pay the exorbitant costs associated with a successful VoIP roll out. SIP was the solution created to take care of the issues.

SIP stands for session initiation protocol. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an IETF-defined signaling protocol, widely used for controlling multimedia communication sessions such as voice and video calls over Internet Protocol (IP). Let me break this down in a way that makes sense. Basically, SIP was created to address the potential issues I referred to earlier that one could have with VoIP. If someone is considering a change to move into this technology they should consult not only their own IT person, but also reach out to the experts that do successful implementations day in and day out.

In order to stop the non tech person's eyes from glazing over with all this terminology, allow me to sum this up for you in a way that doesn't seem like a foreign language. If SIP is a right fit for a company, it literally can save 50 - 70% of the recurring overhead that they pay on their existing dial tone. That ends up more than paying for a technology upgrade.

In this economy every little bit helps and to have tangible money to take to the bank instead of just talking about soft costs is a huge benefit.