Bring Your Own Telecom: Is it Worth Doing?

The overwhelming majority of Plum customers use the telecom we provide as part of our service. After all, the whole idea behind offering managed telecom is to make voice technology easier for customers. By maintaining a system built on Tier 1 telecom provided by multiple carriers we’re also able to write 100% uptime guarantees into our SLAs.

These carriers provide us with phone numbers and network redundancy. Any call that enters our system using an 800 number under our control (i.e. a number we procure from a carrier or one that transferred to us through a RespOrg) can be routed to any geographic location, across any carrier. Sounds simple enough, right?

This situation isn’t always ideal for companies that do a lot of call transfers. The reason is that calls are held in our system for the entire length of the call, which can increase costs. Because of the way carrier billing works, we’re unable to do blind transfers out of our system.

BYOT – Bring Your Own Telecom

Occasionally, customers bring their own telecom to the table. Customers with their own SIP trunk can use that in conjunction with Plum’s voice automate products.

For a quick primer on what SIP trunking is check out our article on the subject, which also highlights many of the advantages of SIP trunking.

Companies interested in using their own telecom need to make sure that their SIP carrier’s session border controller has the ability to do SIP refers. A refer command releases a call from Plum’s IVR system and transfers the call to your system. This process enables carriers to properly track and bill both your company and Plum for usage.

Tale of the Tape

Advantages

• Ability to execute blind transfers
• Telecom Flexibility: You have the ability to pick the telecom provider of your choice and to negotiate prices directly with them.
• SIP transfers can transmit call metadata during call handoffs (transfers in/out)

Drawbacks

• Paying for telecom: Companies need to take a holistic view of the cost of telecom (usage, management, maintenance) to determine what kind of savings they would see over using Plum’s managed system.
• Need to manage telecom backbone: This includes hardware and personnel to manage and maintain your telecom.
• Single carrier: Relying on a single carrier creates a single point of failure in your voice channel. If something goes wrong with that carrier, your entire voice channel could suffer.  
• BYO Telecom is not covered by Plum’s SLAs that guarantee 100% uptime.

For some companies, especially those that already have their own SIP trunks, supplying its own telecom may make sense. If the drawbacks of using your own telecom outweigh the advantages, Plum’s system is able to accommodate your company’s call volume.

To find out if your company is a good fit for BYOT with Plum, or if you have additional questions about BYO Telecom, SIP trunking, and the options available to your company for deploying Plum Voice solutions, contact one of our experts today.