Go back to Part 1 or forward to Part 3?  

Q6: If you had problems that were found to be on the Edge / SBC device, what were they?  

Registration issues feature highly here as does ‘Firmware update required’. It’s possible that the ‘Firmware’ issue could be connected to Crash / Lock-up issues. All can be easily resolved and maybe firmware should be applied before going live; it’s all about doing your homework.   

Déjà vu strikes with the No Audio / One Way Audio again and as this is featuring strongly as a major issue it highlights the importance of testing the elements together before deploying. Results of such testing may even affect purchasing decisions of edge devices.  

Figure 5

“Having the proper release of software is very important. In some instances, the PBX is a release behind, in others it is the service provider.”  David Byrd, Broadvox  

Let’s move onto the PBX.    

Q7: If the problems were found on the PBX what were they?  

As ever, it’s always frustrating to get problems, but how easy to sort out the majority here?  

Upgrading firmware: Why not check with manufacturers first to see if there are updates for any issues that may affect SIP Trunk deployment and operation?

Codec issues: By checking what is supported by the PBX, SBC and ITSP you should be able to select the one supported by all and use that.

Registration failures: Usually typos!

 

Figure 6

No SIP licenses: Some PBXs need you to buy licenses and some don’t. Again check this out with your vendor or supplier before moving forward and ordering the SIP Trunks.  

 A lot of these issues can be avoided by taking time, talking to the ITSP for correct configuration information and entering it into the PBX in the right places. 

 “Agreed 100% – however, we still see the PBX side as the big challenge. Many different PBXs, TDM PBXs, all need different configurations based on the customer installation.” Alan Percy, AudioCodes, Inc. 

We can see the issues from all the responses so far but for this survey we wanted to throw the issues back to the audience with another question asking where they think more understanding is really needed. 

Q8: Understanding SIP is important, which most interests you?  

 Well, this surely shows that the areas that most interest people are the same areas that we need to work on to ensure that SIP Trunks get implemented right first time. 

We even went a step further and asked about what people feel they need to see more of in The SIP School’s own training program.  

Figure 7    

 The answers show that even though it’s always good to move forward and teach people about new areas such as the IMS and IPv6, it’s still the areas that people find the most vexing that need even more focus on and these are the areas that we all must get right before we can move on.

We will bear that in mind ourselves.

“Interesting, they don’t have degree programs at universities on SIP Trunking? No they have to learn on the job.”
Alan Percy, AudioCodes, Inc. 

“Why didn’t you also ask about support from the PBX vendor and the SBC vendor? And what about the System Integrator that sold and installed the system for them? “
Steven J. Johnson, Ingate Systems Inc. 

Let’s move on a little here and focus on what happens when things do go wrong. Your first port of call may be your ITSP so we asked:  

Q10: When things go wrong with the SIP Trunk provider and you talk to support staff, how do you rate their ability to fix problems?  

Figure 9

Now it’s a tough job working in support and if people at both ends of the conversation have a good technical understanding of SIP then it bodes well for a satisfactory and quick resolution but this is not always the case. The answers here I think are promising as most respondents replied that over two thirds (67.2%) of support staff were at least ‘average’ for their assistance on specific issues and some, a lot better. The other percentage just shows that there is always room for improvement.   

Of course we didn’t ask for specific incidents that support people had to deal with, all we wanted to get from this question was the customer’s view of their support experience in general.   

Remember that it is customer experiences and perceptions that can win or lose business regardless of whether the fault was actually with the provider in the first place!  

The point raised by Steve is a great one and means that we’ll expand this element of the survey next year to look at support from all those involved in the ‘total’ SIP trunk solution.  

©Copyright 2011, All rights reserved. (The SIP School)

Click to study the SIP Survey Created by The SIP School and Sponsored by Techistan Part 1, 2, and 3 at Enterprise Connect 2011 in Orlando.