Chapter 4

What’s at stake if you don’t act

Inaction has real costs. They're not always immediate, but they compound.
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Rising maintenance costs

Aging hardware requires more attention, more frequent replacement, and increasingly scarce technical expertise. The total cost of running legacy voice infrastructure trends upward over time, not down. It’s no coincidence that the cost of communications ranks as the second biggest challenge for business leaders, cited by 39%.

Increasing downtime exposure

Older systems accumulate failure points. As reliability degrades, outages become more frequent and more difficult to diagnose. Each one has a direct cost to operations and customer experience.

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A competitive disadvantage

Organizations with modern, integrated voice infrastructure move faster. They adopt new AI capabilities sooner, and with 95%+ of businesses already using or planning to use AI in communications, the gap between those with flexible infrastructure and those without is widening. The performance difference becomes harder to close with every passing year.

Reduced agility

Growth, contraction, geographic expansion, and workforce restructuring all of these require a communications system that can adapt quickly. Legacy systems struggle to keep pace with organizational change. And with 46% of business leaders naming tech stack integration as their top investment priority, falling behind on infrastructure means falling behind across the board.

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Compliance risk

Regulatory requirements don’t pause for infrastructure projects. Failing to meet current mandates can result in fines, service suspension, or liability exposure. Plus, 38% of business leaders are already citing integration with other systems as a primary communications challenge.

Deprioritize voice in your channel mix and you’ll lose customers exactly when the stakes are highest.


Questions to ask before you migrate

A successful migration starts with an honest assessment of where you are. Work through these questions before making technology decisions.

  • What does your current environment look like?
    Map your existing infrastructure: physical locations, network topology, current telephony hardware, and every application that touches voice in any way. Include your collaboration tools, CRM, and any contact center platforms. Know what you’re working with before deciding what to replace.
  • How distributed is your workforce?
    Multi-location and hybrid teams have different voice requirements than single-site operations. If your workforce is distributed, understand exactly how employees are connecting today and what gaps exist in quality, reliability, or access.
  • What is your call flow complexity?
    Simple inbound and outbound calling is straightforward to migrate. Contact centers with complex IVR trees, skills-based routing, and blended inbound/outbound flows require more careful planning. Document your call flows in detail before selecting a platform.
  • Who owns the migration?
    A migration without a clearly accountable owner tends to drift. Assign a change manager or change team with the authority to make decisions and the access to coordinate across IT, operations, and business units. Assess your internal skill set honestly and plan for outside support where gaps exist.
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Get a migration assessment from Sinch

Walk through these questions with a Sinch expert and leave with a tailored migration plan, not a sales pitch.

Talk to an expert
Why voice communications still matter, and why they always will Chapter 3 Why voice communications still matter, and why they always will The migration blueprint Chapter 5 The migration blueprint