Last week, as I was beginning a presentation on the accelerating pace of business communications, it didn’t take long to figure out that most of the audience was well aware of the demand for near-instantaneous response. In fact, many were already delivering on that expectation, judging from the number of tablets, smartphones, and laptops that were in plain view on the tables.

In fairness, most finished their communications and turned their attention to the matter at hand – understanding the relevance of SIP in a business communications environment.

In the media, we often focus on growth and adoption trends, giving less credence to straight adoption figures, which are critical because they not only support growth data but, at the same time, identify the potential market still to be acquired.

Simply put, the upward momentum of adoption of SIP-based unified communications is a clear indicator of the size of the available market and, while many business have already begun enjoying the benefits – both hard and soft – the majority have yet to begin seriously considering a migration strategy.

From a PSTN vs. SIP perspective, they have time; the conversation around the sunset of the PSTN in the U.S. has only barely begun, and is years away still, perhaps more than a decade.  But, from a competitive standpoint, there is little time to waste.  The market is moving in a UC direction and the faster businesses start identifying their migration paths, the greater their opportunity to distance themselves from their competitors by creating process efficiencies enabled only by SIP-based UC.

The ability to read and respond to e-mails on mobile devices in one thing, but it is but a small step in delivering a completely unified communications experience and breaking down the communications silos that have plagued productivity in traditional enterprise networks.  There is already substantial evidence pointing to the ability to extend the benefits of UC to all business units and workgroups within the enterprise.

But, as businesses begin using their SIP-based UC solutions, they will find new ways to integrate different business units into processes in which they never played a role, in the interest of increasing customer satisfaction and the user experience by streamlining communications and increasing the speed to resolution of both internal and external concerns.  Whether it’s connecting field workers with internal subject matter experts for quicker troubleshooting, automating communications for new customer inquiries, or providing superior support for mobile staff and enabling better access to internal resources, SIP is the oil that makes next generation communications engines run.

That was really the focus of the Putting SIP to Work seminars last week – leveraging SIP to create more efficient enterprise-wide communications and finding ways to increase productivity within the 24 hours we are allotted each day (since the one thing we cannot do is add a 25th hour).   If you’re in the Boston or New York area, I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity and spend what I assure will be a valuable half-day understanding how SIP is transforming the way businesses communicate and why your company should be paying attention.  The Seminar’s next stops will be in Boston (Tuesday, July 31, 2012) and New York (Thursday, August 2, 2012).

Even if you have a legacy system in place that works reasonably well, it’s worth your time – the enterprise SIP trunking market is growing at an annual rate of 50 percent because it allows businesses to leverage their existing technology while leveraging SIP to enhance their ability to interact and collaborate with colleagues, partners, and customers.  Don’t be misled into thinking you have to do a rip and replace of your communications infrastructure.  SIP will put you on the migration path.