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trixbox CE vs. Asterisk Downloads

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in December 23rd, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, AsteriskNOW, Bill Miller, Fonality, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, asterisk asterisknow, asterisk downloads, asterisknow trixbox, digium, downloads, linux, million downloads, trixbox, trixbox CE     

As you may have read, Digium announced a sharp rise in Asterisk downloads for 2008 registering in a whopping 1.5 million downloads for 2008. That got me thinking just how does Asterisk & AsteriskNOW compare with Fonality’s trixbox CE distro? Arguably trixbox CE is the either the #1 or the #2 downloaded Asterisk-based distribution. But are they #1 or #2? Let the Fonality vs. Digium download battle commence…

First, we head to Sourceforge, which tracks trixbox CE downloads and see how trixbox CE stacks up against Digium’s claimed 1.5 million downloads.
trixbox-ce-downloads-2008.jpg

Date (UTC) Downloads Bytes Served
Dec 2008 * 18,050 6.8 TB
Nov 2008 31,000 12.2 TB
Oct 2008 35,187 15.6 TB
Sep 2008 19,449 9.6 TB
Aug 2008 6,948 3.3 TB
Jul 2008 8,329 3.7 TB
Jun 2008 19,993 9.3 TB
May 2008 21,822 13.3 TB
Apr 2008 18,238 11.0 TB
Mar 2008 41,085 25.2 TB
Feb 2008 27,725 16.9 TB
Jan 2008 43,942 26.4 TB
     
Total 291,768 153.8 TB

* Partial data: End of month not yet reached.
Taking a daily average, the final 2008 total downloads should be ~292,587.

That’s 292,587 (year-end estimate) vs. 1.5 million (so far) for Asterisk. So it would appear Digium’s Asterisk beats Fonality trixbox CE by over 5X!

Not so fast though. I was pretty sure the Digium download numbers were for Asterisk and AsteriskNOW combined. AsteriskNOW and trixbox CE are more comparable to each other, since both have FreePBX installed, both are .iso bootable CDs, they’re both nearly plug-and-play distros, etc.

So to be fair to Fonality’s trixbox CE, I should compare AsteriskNOW to trixbox CE. I contacted Digium’s Bill Miller, VP, Product Management, and asked him for the breakdown in their 1.5 million downloads.

I told Bill my intentions of making a side-by-side download comparison, but also pointed out I had to wear my skepticism hat:

“The only caveat to any comparison I make between Asterisk/AsteriskNOW & trixbox CE is that you host your own downloads - not a 3rd party like Sourceforge. So there I have to have a healthy level of skepticism for any numbers Digium cites. Nevertheless, I think it’ll be an interesting discussion if I post these comparative stats in an article.”

Bill explained, “19.8% are AsteriskNOW. We are close to par with them.”. Indeed at 19.8% of 1.5 million equates to 297,000 downloads or roughly 6500 more than trixbox CE. Although, I said above I had to wear my skepticism hat, I think the numbers Bill gave me sound credible.

Bill Miller ads, “Due to the other open source packages they have integrated, and the head start they had, we suspect that they have more in trixbox than AsteriskNOW in production but we are taking downloads and share from them.”

I would agree with Bill that there are indeed more trixbox CE boxes in production, but it does appear from these numbers that Digium’s AsteriskNOW is closing fast in production numbers and already exceeding Fonality’s trixbox CE in downloads.

To be perfectly frank, I’m a little bit surprised AsteriskNOW has surpassed trixbox CE, since I’m sure even Digium would admit that trixbox CE, which was formerly Asterisk@Home, had a huge head start and developed a strong community (see trixbox forums and the sheer number of posts & threads). In fact, Bill Miller mentioned the head start in our conversation. Still, the number of downloads between the two is very close and they are neck-in-neck.

Of course, if you add in regular Asterisk downloads it’s no contest. Digium wins by a landslide.

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Fonality Launches PBXtra Unified Agent on Salesforce.com’s Force.com AppExchange

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in December 9th, 2008   
Topics: AppExchange, Asterisk, CRM, Call Center and CRM, Chris Lyman, Fonality, PBXtra, Salesforce, Salesforce.com, Switchvox, TMCnet, UAE, Unified Communications, VoIP, agent, asterisk based, contact center, pbxtra unified, unified agent     

fonality-uae-01.jpg
Back in September I wrote about Fonality’s trixbox Unified Agent Edition (UAE) and how it can automatically match all inbound and outbound calls with the corresponding record in salesforce.com’s AppExchange, and call data is captured and logged. Apparently, this was still a yet-to-be-announced product I wrote about that resulted in a call from Fonality’s CEO Chris Lyman asking how I found out about it. Woops, my bad, Chris.

Well, today, Fonality has officially launched UAE. I spoke with Chris Lyman to learn more about this product. Chris told me, “What we’ve done is allow managers and agents using CRM and a phone system to make some pretty serious decisions about how they run their business and what we consider some major cost savings.”

Chris explained that they pumped the CDR (call data records) from Fonality’s PBXtra into Salesforce.com. Once the CDR data is housed in Salesforce.com obvious business benefits can be realized. You can for instance know when customers called you or when you last called a particular customer. Importantly, with the reporting mechanisms you can understand how long it takes to call a lead or opportunity and how that affects your close rate. The reports allow you to for example easily see “neglected opportunities” such as ‘opportunities that have not been contacted in XX minutes’.  This lets you see how long does it takes an agent to make a first contact for a lead/customer/opportunity that been created inside the CRM system. Here’s a screenshot of some of the reports:
[click for larger image]
fonality-uae-02.jpg

Fonality UAE brings a whole new level of CRM integration with PBXtra, an Asterisk-based system. This tight-level of integration with an Asterisk-based system with the popular Salesforce.com hosted CRM platform is great news for the Asterisk community. While Asterisk-based systems have made in-roads in the contact center space, heavyweights like Nortel and Avaya still win a huge share of the contact center space because of their advanced CRM integration. So the more Asterisk-based solutions offer advanced CRM applications, the better for the Asterisk ecosystem. We’ll see more Asterisk deployments in contact centers as a result.

It’s worth mentioning that Digium’s Switchvox IP-PBX also offers integration with CRM apps, including Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. I saw a demo of Switchvox’s web-based panels down in Huntsville, Alabama. I remember it supported querying Salesforce.com on an inbound call (screenpop), but don’t recall if it supported querying Salesforce.com on an outbound call. I’m also not sure to what level Switchvox offers reporting on inbound & outbound calls tied to the CRM contact records. I don’t believe Switchvox offers contact-based reporting based on CDR information. I’ve actually been meaning to do a full-review of Switchvox.

In any event, getting back to UAE, I should point out that Fonality queries a local cache of the Salesforce.com database for it’s instant when it performs a contact record lookup and is not affected by any sort of Internet outage or Salesforce.com outage. Importantly, inbound calls can be automatically directed to the contact or opportunity owner. This prevents sales personnel from ’stealing’ a lead.

“The Frankenstein, bolt-on products from other telephony vendors provide only basic screen pops or click-to-call features. Fonality has a much more sophisticated approach for delivering feature-rich, end-to-end contact center solutions,” said Corey Brundage, vice president of marketing and product management at Fonality. “PBXtra Unified Agent is the only offering available today that immediately impacts a contact center’s top and bottom line without the need for professional services or a six-figure capital expenditure.”

Overview:

  • PBXtra Unified Agent from Fonality combines phone system, call center, and CRM capabilities to provide a complete view of contact center operations. With Salesforce CRM and PBXtra Unified Agent, companies can increase close rates, revenue and profits, while providing much better customer service and dramatically reducing sales and support costs.
  • For less than $20/user per month, PBXtra Unified Agent delivers an immediate return on investment. Agents benefit from productivity enhancements and timely access to more accurate and complete information so they can do a better job selling to and supporting customers. Managers gain deep visibility into real-time and historical agent call activity within Salesforce CRM so they can make more intelligent business decisions based on accurate data.

“Today, contact center managers are often faced with inaccurate or missing data and agents struggle with cumbersome CTI applications, resulting in a poor customer experience,” said Richard Gonzales, president of Buvelo Solutions, a salesforce.com consulting partner. “PBXtra Unified Agent solves these problems with a unified solution that helps managers and agents use Salesforce CRM more effectively than ever before.”

With PBXtra Unified Agent managers can easily measure, test, and improve sales and support processes, view the effectiveness of human resources, salvage opportunities or identify lapses in service level agreements. PBXtra Unified Agent includes the following features for managers:

  • Track and record all call data in Salesforce CRM automatically
  • View customer call histories
  • Understand how call follow-up times impact profitability
  • Find out the number of calls it takes to convert a lead to a sale
  • Determine which agents are the most responsive
  • Visually rank agent calling frequency and duration
  • Instantly report all leads not called within a specified period

With HUD, Fonality’s communications application, you can view desktop alerts with inbound caller name, number, even deal size. In the sample below, the sales agent can see an inbound $120,000 opportunity:
fonality-uae-03.jpg

“PBXtra Unified Agent’s deep integration with Salesforce gives our customers even more value from their CRM installations,” said Clarence So, CMO, salesforce.com. “Thousands of customers have installed applications from the Force.com AppExchange because partners like Fonality are offering innovative tools that expand the capabilities of Salesforce CRM.”

Chris explained that one of reasons why they called it Unified Agent Edition is because they created a unified agent creation and logon. When you make an agent on PBXtra, it displays a drop-down box of your Salesforce.com agents allowing you to map your extension on Salesforce.com account. So it matches username and password across the two platforms. That’s how you know the name of the person making a call as opposed to the extension number.

For current PBXtra customers it’s a $4,000 upgrade for unlimited agents. New customers the pricing starts at $6,995 for server hardware and software.  Interested parties may also participate in a Fonality-hosted informational webinar taking place on Friday, December 12 at 10 a.m. PT. To register for this webinar, head to www.fonality.com/UAEwebinar.

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Toktumi Now Offered on Dell VoIP Website

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in November 24th, 2008   
Topics: Bandwidth.com, Fonality, Magicjack, Nortel, Packet8, TMCnet, Toktumi, Toktuni, VoIP     

toktumi-logo.gif Toktumi recently announced a partnership with Dell to distribute its small business VoIP service through a co-branded site on Dell.com (www.dell.com/voip), which also features Fonality, Nortel, and Bandwidth.com. So what’s so special about Toktumi, (a word play on ‘talk to me’) and it’s USB-based plug-in device? Well, Toktumi is very toktumi-usb-adapter.jpg similar to the popular Magicjack, which also uses a USB connector for connecting an analog phone. However, Magicjack is only $19.99/year (first year is $39.95) for unlimited U.S. calling while Toktumi is $179.40/year ($14.95/month) for unlimited dialing inside the U.S. and Canada. So what does this extra cost get you?

Continue reading Toktumi Now Offered on Dell VoIP Website…

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Fonality Beats Avaya and Boasts 3,000 Call Centers

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in October 23rd, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Avaya, Chris Lyman, Crusecom, Fonality, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, call centers, center, center market     

crusecom-logo.jpg
Fonality’s CEO Chris Lyman spoke with me earlier today to talk about the strong inroads Fonality has been making in the call center market. Chris said, “Fonality has become a big player in what I like to call the micro call center market. We launched our call center product in 2005 and we have almost 3,000 deployed call centers now.”

When asked to define “call center” since many people have a different definition, Chris responded, “Anybody who purchases Call Center Edition plus HUD Agent. We can’t imagine someone buying barging, monitoring, recording, and queue reporting if you weren’t doing call center activity. Since these products effectively add in some cases double the costs to the phone system, you’re pretty serious if you’re buying those.”

When asked what percentage were call center deployments versus regular enterprise deployments, Chris said that 40-50% were off all their solutions sold are Call Center Edition.

Chris stated that there is a vastly under served and untapped call center market when he explained, “The 5-50 agent market where I have a regular business with 50 employees, but I’ve got 10 sales people who work the queues. And so there is this micro call center that has been ignored by Genesys and the expensive players out there for all these years because you cannot afford a $100,000 drop-in, bolt-on Avaya call center system. I think the low end of the market hasn’t been able to afford that and we’re enabling the micro call center market.”

Chris explained that Fonality PBXtra Call Center saved Crusecom, a Michigan-based outsourcing call center, more than $250,000 annually. Art Cruse CEO at Crusecom explained he’d have to hire a full-time Avaya engineer on-site at $140,000 - $160,000 per year plus maintenance costs of the Avaya system. He also explained Avaya call center phones are more expensive than regular Avaya phones. They also have 94% call completion rate or an amazing 6% abandonment rate. Other call centers are coming to look at how they’ve achieved such as phenomenally low abandonment rate. Fonality’s call center system has helped Crusecom attain rapid growth. The $250,000 savings enabled Crusecom to invest in a new 14,000 square foot call center facility that will house up to 150 call center agents.

“Fonality and PBXtra Call Center made our whole business model of providing cost effective, outsourced onshore call centers possible. They have delivered remarkable business benefits to our company,” said Art Cruse CEO at Crusecom. “When we bought our Fonality system, it was 75 percent less than a comparable Avaya system. With Avaya, we would easily be paying an extra $250,000 per year in support, maintenance and hardware costs, which would directly impact our bottom line and limit our growth capabilities.”

Crusecom provides 24×7x365 call center operations to state agencies and companies that want to keep call center operations in the U.S. but cannot afford the high costs of urban call centers. Since deploying PBXtra Call Center in 2007, the company has expanded its customer base, added 50 new call center agents and increased inbound call volumes.

“PBXtra Call Center is amazing - the more calls we get the better the system performs and the more we save,” Cruse continued. “We’ve been able to reinvest these cost savings in our company and grow our business very rapidly.”

By leveraging web-based reporting capabilities in PBXtra Call Center and other technology developed in-house, Crusecom is the only electronic benefits transfer (EBT) call center in the country that is offering customers real-time, web-based service level agreement reporting. In addition to the $250,000 he is already saving with Fonality, Crusecom estimates that this real-time, self-service reporting functionality saves his company eight to 16 man hours every day, or $50,000 to $100,000 annually, while providing customers with better service and support.

“Gone are the days of the cumbersome, big-iron call center oligopoly. Crusecom is a perfect example of why there is a changing of the guard in the call center market as companies rapidly adopt more agile technologies like PBXtra Call Center,” said Chris Lyman CEO of Fonality. “Small and mid-size call centers need affordable, flexible phone systems with solid service agreements that allow them to grow rapidly. Fonality is delivering on these requirements and is constantly innovating with newer advanced technologies.”

Chris also explained that Fonality’s flat rate support was also a key advantage over other call center IP-PBX competitors. Lastly, he explained the hybrid-hosted approach enables call centers to have home agents without the need for VPNs. The hybrid-hosted approach resolves pesky VoIP over NAT firewall issues making telecommuting a much easier approach with lower TCO.

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Digium Major Announcement - what can it be?

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 25th, 2008   
Topics: Alabama, Asterisk, Astricon, Fonality, Huntsville, IP706, IP712, VoIP, adtran, announcement, digium, ip pbx, major, major announcement     

Today, Digium, creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the leading open source telephony platform will be making a major announcement at Astricon later today. Digium hinted to me that a major announcement would be made at Astricon when I visited their Huntsville, Alabama headquarters in August.

I tried to find out what the news will be, but alas Digium couldn’t tell me. So I thought it would be fun to prognosticate what this deal could be.

1) Digium’s Switchvox will be distributed by Dell, which currently carries another Asterisk competitor, Fonality.

2) Digium will be acquired by Adtran, an avid supporter of Digium in the past.

3) HP seeing that competitor Dell is offering IP-PBXs (i.e. Fonality and Nortel) will partner with Digium to offer Digium’s line of IP-PBXs and telephony hardware

4) Now that Adtran, a financial supporter of Digium, offers their own line of IP phones, including the IP706 and IP712, perhaps Digium will offer a bundled IP-PBX package that includes Switchvox and a few Adtran IP phones.

5) Digium will announce this whole open source thing is nonsense, there’s no money in it, and they’re announcing that they are making Asterisk closed source effective immediately. Ok, maybe in some alternate universe!

6) CDW, a major distributor, will be carrying and distributing Digium’s products.

Ok, so what’s your guess? Costco? And remember the clock is ticking. The announcement could be made at any moment.

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HUD 3.0 for trixbox CE and any other Asterisk IP-PBX!

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 23rd, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Fonality, HUD 3.0, ITEXPO, Kerry Garrison, Mobile, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, ip pbx, trixbox, trixbox CE, users     

HUD3_Client.jpg
I spoke with Kerry Garrison last week at ITEXPO and he gave me a news scoop that Fonality would soon offer the HUD 3.0 Unified Communications client for the open source trixbox CE Asterisk-based platform. trixbox CE is one of the most popular Asterisk distributions. I recently commented in my trixbox Pro review (paid version),”The feature-rich HUD Pro client is certainly a competitive advantage Fonality has over many other Asterisk-based solutions.” As such, offering HUD 3.0 for trixbox CE is a major move by Fonality.

In fact, Kerry told me that once HUD has been ported to trixbox CE, the new HUD will work not only on trixbox CE but should also work other Asterisk flavors, i.e. Switchvox, PBX in a Flash, Voiceroute, etc. Fonality plans to license the HUD 3.0 client, however, pricing has not been set. While Fonality loses the “exclusivity” of their feature-rich HUD client, they will certainly gain revenue from other Asterisk distros that license HUD.

The new HUD 3.0 will provide trixbox CE users with presence management and detection in a single interface for all types of office communications, including SMS, instant message, landline calling, mobile calling, chat, voicemail, email, conferencing, recording, and barging.

HUD 3.0 permissions in the Group Manager:
HUD3_GroupManager.gif

“Open source rarely lacks in features, but often lacks in ease-of-use and polish. Our intention with this announcement is to bring the polish of the HUD 3.0 unified communications platform, which is in use by more than 100,000 paid users, to the trixbox community. This should allow them, now more than ever, to compete with the high-prices of the big-iron oligopoly,” said Chris Lyman, CEO of Fonality.

HUD 3.0 for trixbox CE delivers a unified communications dashboard that shows availability for onsite and remote employees, eliminating wasted time created by busy signals, voice mails and phone tag. Users can easily drag and drop calls onto a colleague’s desk or mobile phone, quickly convert IM chats to voice calls, and even personalize calls with photo caller ID.

One caveat with the new HUD 3.0 client that some may object to is that it uses a hybrid-hosted model for the sign-in process. It uses Fonality’s hybrid-hosted data centers to authenticate the sign-on process to determine if you have a valid license. I asked Kerry what happens if the Internet is down and he said you can’t sign-in to HUD. However if Internet goes down after you sign-in, HUD still works.

HUD3_UserManager.gif

The new capabilities of multi-lingual HUD 3.0 include:
• Integration with Google Talk from any desktop, BlackBerry, or iPhone. Users will now be able to chat and exchange presence with any of Google’s more than five million Google Talk users.
• Deep and instantaneous Web 2.0 integration with all applications such as CRM, Google, ticketing, billing, and financial systems. Web pages can either actively launch upon call activity or send silent (background http) notifications to web-based applications.
• Mobile presence displays mobile users to the rest of the company when they connect to the trixbox CE phone system. Mobile presence also supports Busy-Ring Back™ so as not to disturb a fellow employee who is on a mobile device.
• Personalized photo caller-ID displays photos of all inbound and outbound callers, and displays caller photos when listening to voicemail or joining a conference bridge.
• SMS one-way text messaging is now included, in addition to the already supported one-click call, mobile call, voicemail, email, and chat.
• Visual conferencing for the easy creation and recording of conferences. Drag users in, kick, and mute all with a single click. Each conference bridge participant has a face photo displayed, which makes it easier to talk to them, see them, and communicate with them using HUD 3.0 built-in instant messaging.
• Visual voice mail allows users to receive voicemail directly on their PC or Mac desktop. A MWI (message waiting indicator) provides notification when a new voicemail has arrived and, with a few simple clicks of the mouse, messages can be played, fast-forwarded, rewound, or saved to disk. Also, voicemail contacts can be easily added to Outlook, and users can click to return calls, or click to chat.
• HUD Queues take trixbox CE and HUD 3.0 into larger call centers without the typical associated costs. HUD 3.0 now supports big call center features such as real-time queue displays, up-to-the-second queue stats including ASA, dragging-and-dropping any holding queue call to an agent, call center alarms, abandon alerts, broadcast agent messaging, virtual wall boards, and much more.
• Seven languages at launch including English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, and simplified and traditional Chinese.

An open beta program will begin in a couple of weeks. HUD 3.0 for trixbox CE will be available in October.

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Fonality Targets Call Centers with Advanced Call Center Features

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 19th, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Chris, Chris Lyman, Fonality, HUD, HUD 3.0, HUD3, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, client, counterpath, feature, xten     

hud3-logo.jpg
I met with Fonality CEO Chris Lyman at ITEXPO and he gave me a demo of HUD 3.0, which includes some very advanced call center features. HUD 3.0 now not only displays the queues, but it lets you drag-and-drop individual queues off the main HUD client onto your Desktop allowing managers & agents to focus on specific queues of interest. The new version features important statistics such as abandonment rate, ASA (average speed of answer), and more. You can see all of your agents in a particular queue and they are color coded to indicate their status (on internal call, on queue call, etc.)

One critical feature is that if a call is not being answered, it immediately broadcasts a toast popup window to all the agents in the queue and allows an agent to take the call before it is abandoned. Chris told me this feature has even helped to dramatically reduce the abandonment rate internally at Fonality for their support and customer service queues.
hud3-call-center-alerts.jpg
The advanced queue features in HUD 3.0 should really open the door for Fonality to go after medium-sized call centers that require real-time queue statistics and other advanced call center functionality.

The HUD 3.0 client has been totally revamped and written from scratch resulting in a 45% reduction in memory. They’ve also moved away from IRC chat backbone and are now using Jabber/XMPP which Chris says is less “chatty” on the network.

With the XMPP support, you can even add Google Talk users to your Contacts list within HUD. He demonstrated sending IMs to his Blackberry running the Google Talk client. There is no VoIP support yet, but that will be possible with Jingle which is installed in Asterisk 1.4. Currently, trixbox Pro and PBXtra are running on Asterisk 1.2. Chris also told me they plan to federate with other clients such as AOL/AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, etc. Once Jingle is added and Fonality moves to Asterisk 1.4 (no ETA) then you can make VoIP calls from your regular extension to MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, AOL, etc.

Of course, I told Chris he needs to add a SIP stack & full softphone capability to HUD so you can use HUD when telecommuting, traveling, etc. He did say I could use Counterpath’s Xten SIP softphone client, but it’s not nearly as feature-rich as HUD and it requires a second communications client to be open. I’m all about unified communications not diverging communications!

Still, I have to give the Fonality team mad props for the new HUD 3.0. I like the new docking/undocking windows feature which lets you undock specific portions of the HUD client and still minimize the main HUD application while leaving the undocked windows open. And again, I think the new advanced queues capabilities in HUD 3.0 with real-time color-coded stats should catch the eye of call center managers looking for a new feature-rich phone system.

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ITEXPO West 2008 Best of Show Winners

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 19th, 2008   
Topics: 8x8, Apex Voice Communications, CosmoCom, Epygi, Fonality, ITEXPO, Inc., Instant Solutions, IntelePeer, KnoahSoft, Mitel, MobileMax, Oaisys, Pactolus, PhoneFusion, Phonevite, Quintum, Ring Carrier, SIP Print, Syntellect, TMCnet, TelcoBridges, Touchstone Technologies, Unified Communications, VoIP, VocalCom, Volt Delta, WBS Connect, companies, digium, i2Telecom, products, sangoma, solution, solutions     

itexpo-logo.jpgIt’s been a great ITEXPO - perhaps the best West Coast show we’ve had, especially when you consider the economic turmoil. It’s worth sharing the companies and their products that were just awarded “Best of Show” at TMC’s Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.
 
Best Service Provider Solution
Ring Carrier
TelcoBridges
IntelePeer
 
Best Large Enterprise Solution
Instant Solutions
MobileMax
 
Best SMB Solution
8×8
Quintum
Epygi
 
Best Consumer Offering
Phonevite
 
Best Development Tool
Sangoma
Apex Voice Communications
Touchstone Technologies
 
Most Innovative Solution
i2Telecom
Oaisys
PhoneFusion
 
Best Booth
WBS Connect
Mitel
 
Best of Call Center 2.0
VocalCom
Syntellect
CosmoCom
 
Best of Open Source
Digium
Fonality
Pactolus
 
Editors’ Choice
SIP Print
KnoahSoft, Inc.
Volt Delta
 
“These companies are pioneers and their products represent the cream of the crop in VoIP solutions,” said Rich Tehrani, president and group editor-in-chief of TMC. “As the event grows, selecting Best of Show winners each year becomes more and more difficult as the solutions displayed on the exhibit floor become more and more impressive.”
 
Tehrani continued: “Every product is worthy of distinction, therefore you can rest assured that the companies and products on the list this year represent truly outstanding achievement in IP telephony.”

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ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 18th, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Conferences, CosmoCom, Fonality, ITEXPO, Microsoft, Packet8, Pika, SIP, TMCnet, Toyota Prius Hybrid, Unified Communications, VoIP, angeles convention, communications, communications technology, convention center, digium, skype, video conferencing     

Some great news from TMC about our IP communications conference & expositions (ITEXPO) taking place this week that I thought I’d share. The show is still going on, with today being the last day. Yesterday’s exhibit hall attendance was tremendous as seen by some photos I snapped and posted yesterday. I had some great meetings or saw many important VoIP companies, including Asterisk/Digium, CosmoCom, Fonality, Microsoft, Packet8, PIKA, Skype, and more. Many companies announced news or launched new products at ITEXPO, which is now the #1 IP communications show in the U.S. Further, in talking to two vendors I learned some interesting news coming out next week at Astricon, that I can’t divulge yet, but stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out this news release put out by TMC

itexpo-logo.jpgITEXPO West 2008 to Generate over $1 Million for Los Angeles; Brings Next Generation Technology to the City of Angels

Leading Communications Event Attracts Largest, Most Diverse Audience of any Conference in the Internet Communications Technology Industry

Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) today announced that ITEXPO West 2008 taking place September 16-18, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, expects more than 7,000 attendees from around the world. Year after year, ITEXPO West plays a prominent role in supporting Los Angeles, with estimates of a more than $1 million influx surging into the local economy in less than three days.

ITEXPO West 2008 is the world’s largest and most significant communications technology event, featuring more than 150 companies exhibiting on the EXPO floor, and hundreds of sessions led by the industry’s most prominent thought leaders. Attendees are afforded unprecedented access to a diverse population of both global and local companies; in addition to executive keynote speeches from household names like Skype, Microsoft, Avaya and Texas Instruments, local companies, such as AireSpring, Fonality, Grandstream, TW Telecom, will use this conference as platform to make announcements and showcase their groundbreaking voice and video offerings.

What is also important to note, is that contrary to other declining economic sectors, IP communications and VoIP salaries had a noteworthy rise in the second quarter. OnForce, Inc., is an online jobs mart where employers and workers meet on the Internet and agree on an hourly rate. A recent report from the company showed growth in VoIP rates have increased from 1.5 to 1.95 between Q1 and Q2; VoIP jobs are now paying twice the average of all IT jobs.
“Over the past several years, we have welcomed many people from around the world who flock to the Los Angeles Convention Center each Fall to attend the Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO,” commented Pouria Abbassi, P.E., CEO & General Manager of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“Communications technology is important in every type and facet of business operations across the board, especially in Convention Center business. Knowing the communications technology of today will help anticipate and address our business issues of tomorrow. We are honored to host the ITEXPO 2008 at our World Class Los Angeles Convention Center,” added Abbassi.
The show helps attendees identify the issues and challenges affecting the deployment of IP-based communications technologies. It provides a comprehensive forum for evaluating the latest products and services, and delivers a face-to-face networking opportunity that service providers, carriers, resellers, distributors, equipment manufacturers, and IT executives from enterprise and SMB companies need to cultivate new business relationships.

“Converged applications that leverage VoIP and video-over-the Internet are diving our industry forward, and may very well be one of the few silver linings in an otherwise dismal economy,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC president and ITEXPO West 2008 conference chairman. “Clearly, this technology is here to stay as over 16 million U.S. consumer VoIP lines were in service by the first quarter of 2008, according to new data released by TeleGeography, representing nearly 14 percent of all households and 27 percent of broadband households.
“It is a no-brainer for us to host this event in Los Angeles at the Convention Center, as this facility and this City are second to none.”

The expo hours for ITEXPO West are: Wednesday, Sept 17th from 4:00 to 8:00 PM, and on Thursday Sept 18th from 11:00 AM until 5:00 PM.

Free expo passes are still available, and interested attendees should visit https://www.tmcnet.com/scripts/itexpo/ca08/itfall08reg.aspx?theplan=D for more information. In addition to educational content and new product information for today’s latest communications technology, ITEXPO also features several vendor promotions — including the Toyota Prius Hybrid Giveaway, which is free to participate, with no purchases necessary. For more information on this exciting promotion, please visit: http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/west-08/w08-prizes.htm.

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Internet Telephony Expo Preview

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 10th, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Fonality, IP Communications, ITEXPO, Livecast, Pika, Rich Tehrani, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, andy Abramson, communications, digium, sangoma, smb     

itexpo-west-2008-show-guide.jpg Rich posted the official ITEXPO Show Guide, which gives you a preview of what’s happening at next week’s ITEXPO. You can check out the 17MB PDF by clicking the image to the left. In Rich’s blog post, he previews what’s happening at the show and he writes, “All the top names are in the show… Cisco, Avaya, Time Warner Cable, Mitel, Interactive Intelligence and Dialogic. In addition, the most important open-source communications companies will be exhibiting. Digium/Asterisk, Sangoma, Fonality, Pika, Orecx, Xorcom, Redfone, FreeSide and many more.”

He adds, “Every IP PBX vendor who matters will be there. Every SMB VoIP provider… There will also be a great deal of solutions for service providers, call centers and more. The entire communications vendor community will be in attendance.”

I can’t believe the show is less than a week away. Should be a great show! Looking forward to meeting all the major players in VoIP & IP communications, as well as hanging out with fellow bloggers and journalists at Andy Abramson’s renowned Bloggers’ Dinner.

As I previously stated, I plan on using Livecast to stream portions of the show. I should probably test it sometime today on my blog to see how well it works. Come to think of it, I think I will. Stay tuned!

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Interviews with Top 60 VoIP Movers and Shakers…

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 5th, 2008   
Topics: AT&T, Aspect, Asterisk, Fonality, ITEXPO, Mitel, Rich Tehrani, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, digium, interviews, learn, movers, movers shakers, shakers, skype, telecom     

Rich Tehrani has a nice roundup of 60 interviews he’s done with many of the major “movers and shakers” in the VoIP / IP communications industry.

Rich writes:

Whenever I go to a conference, I learn a tremendous amount from the people I meet at the show. I really enjoy the impromptu networking which takes place at events as it allows me to learn so much about what is happening in the market….{snip}

In less than two weeks the world with gather at ITEXPO — The World’s Communications Conference to help select products for purchase, learn about the latest events in the telecom market and network with peers.

It is this last area where this blog entry should be of maximal benefit. You see, over the past month or so I have been interviewing the telecom movers and shakers who will be coming to ITEXPO. I certainly didn’t interview every mover and shaker (exactly what is a telecom shaker anyway wink  ) but this list should give you a good idea who some of the speakers and exhibitors will be at this year’s show.

Some of the movers & shakers Rich interviewed include Digium, Skype, AT&T, Fonality, Mitel, Aspect, and more. Rich’s blog enter includes a nice organized table list of the interviews letting you read the companies you’re interested in. Like Rich said, many of these movers & shakers will be at ITEXPO which is less than 2 weeks away. I’m going to be there and hope to do some on-site interviews. Hope to see you there!

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Fonality’s trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition integrates with Salesforce.com

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 5th, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Avaya, Call Center and CRM, Fonality, Interactive Intelligence, Nortel, Salesforce.com, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, agent, agent edition, call center, ip pbx, trixbox Pro UAE, trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition, unified agent     

trixbox-uae-salesforce-com-appexchange.pngFonality’s trixbox Unified Agent Edition (UAE) can automatically match all inbound and outbound calls with the corresponding record in salesforce.com’s AppExchange, and call data is captured and logged eliminating manual entry. This is a big step for Fonality in taking their Asterisk-based IP-PBX from simply an enterprise phone system to a “true” call center platform that can compete with Avaya, Nortel, Interactive Intelligence, and other major call center platforms.

Fonality, today announced the collaboration of the trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition and salesforce.com’s AppExchange.

Fonality’s trixbox Pro, Unified Agent Edition (UAE) is immediately available for test drive and deployment from Fonality Australia. It’s unclear whether trixbox UAE is available in the U.S. or elsewhere as well. I’m looking into it. Relatedly, go check out my in-depth trixbox Pro 2.0 Call Center Edition (CCE) review I wrote yesterday.

In the meantime, Fonality UAE features:
- Performance Management:
- Automatic Call History provides a detailed history of who employees are calling and the duration of each call.
- Integrated Call Recording allows any call to be recorded from the PBX system and attached to the corresponding record in Salesforce.com.
- Lead Management Reporting provides reports on how many calls were required for conversion, lead activity, etc.
- Agent Activity Reporting ranks agents based on activity and productivity.
- Outbound Call Reporting shows which reports are busiest on the phone, how many calls have been made to leads and customers.

Agent Productivity:
- Click to Call allows any number is Salesforce.com to be automatically dialed with the click of a mouse.
- Improved Screen Pops address the problem of multiple matching records. A screen is automatically launched for immediate note taking, and then can be attached to the proper record after the call.
- Deal Size Alerts pop-up on a rep’s desktop and display the name, company and size of the opportunity before the phone starts ringing.
- Account Ownership Routing automatically directs incoming calls go to the account owners

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trixbox Pro 2.0 review

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 4th, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Cisco, Fonality, HUD, Nortel, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, asterisk based, based solutions, center edition, conference bridges, ip pbx, outlook integration, trixbox, trixbox CE, trixbox Pro, trixbox Pro CCE, trixbox Pro Call Center Edition, trixbox Pro Enterprise Edition     

Fonality is one of the premiere providers of Asterisk-based IP-PBX solutions. Fonality offers three products: PBXtra, trixbox CE (community edition), and trixbox Pro (commercial/reseller edition). trixbox Pro. which is their commercial edition runs on Fonality’s “hardened” PBXtra technology, which Fonality claims has 5 thousand installations and over 325 million calls to date. trixbox Pro is a hybrid-hosted solution, which means you get 24/7 monitoring, phone mobility with no NAT traversal issues, and automatic software updates.


                                        trixbox appliance

Ratings Score
Installation
Documentation
Features
Usability
Performance
Overall

trixbox Pro comes in three editions. The trixbox Pro family starts with Standard Edition (SE), which is free.The remaining two editions, Enterprise Edition (EE) and Call Center Edition (CCE), are available at a low monthly cost or for a lifetime fee. TMC Labs checked out Fonality’s flagship product, trixbox Pro Call Center Edition (CCE) which has all the features of trixbox Pro SE and trixbox Pro EE, plus additional call center functionality. trixbox Pro Call Center Edition scored very well in my ratings. It’s lowest rating was still a very good 4 stars for ‘Performance’. The reason for this not achieving 4.5 or a 5 star rating was that their hosted web interface can be occasionally slow.

trixbox Pro CCE is based on Asterisk and includes an easy web-based user interface, web-based voice mail, exportable reporting, click-to-call,  mouse-driven operator panel, Outlook integration, real-time resource graphs, system alerts, auto-card configuring, seamless VoIP trunking, and more. trixbox Pro CCE is designed for companies with 2 - 200 agents and includes ACD and IVR capabilities with unlimited queues, skills-based routing, real-time queue statistics, graphical reports, and web-based recording access.

One of the most powerful features included in trixbox Pro CCE is HUD Pro, a communications software application which features enhanced presence, on-the-fly recording, call barge, call monitor, CRM integration, and one-touch agent login. Each extension has up to 6 icons at the bottom. Depending on your permissions, you can click on one of these icons to call their voicemail, record, barge, email, call their alternate number (mobile phone), or chat.

Here’s a screenshot of HUD during an internal extension call.

trixbox-hud-pro-1.jpg

You’ll notice there are different colors to indicate presence and color coding of calls.

Green - Inbound/outbound call
Orange - Queue call
Purple - Intraoffice extension call
Grey - Unregistered

HUD also features drag-and-drop call control, which not only lets you drag calls to someone’s extension, but if that person is out of the office, you can drag the call to the mobile phone icon which will transfer the call to their mobile phone. One neat feature is that HUD can launch a Web browser to a custom URL when your extension rings. This can be used to look up inbound callers in your Web-based CRM software or even direct the search query to Google, AnyWho reverse number lookup, etc. HUD Pro also features secure chat for intraoffice instant messaging.

For users that use Outlook Contacts, there is a TAPI plugin that lets you simply right-click on a Contact and initiate a call. They have also extended TAPI so that you can call directly from your Inbox or any other Outlook email folder. What’s even cooler is that trixbox Pro takes care of dialing the “9″ and it automatically takes your phone off-hook (speakerphone mode) so you don’t have to even touch the phone. The off-hook speakerphone mode actually works throughout HUD. So you can also double-click an internal extension from within HUD and your phone will go off-hook automatically. Similarly, you can highlight a phone number anywhere on your computer, and then “drag” that number into HUD and HUD will dial the number. I should mention that currently trixbox Pro supports this off-hook feature on Polycom and Aastra phones.

trixbox Pro has some other interesting tricks up its sleeve. For instance, it has a Firefox plugin called FONcall which automatically highlights a phone number on a web-page. You simply click it and it initiates the call - once again automatically taking your phone off-hook.

trixbox-hud-pro-2.jpg Similar to an Outlook toast popup on an incoming email, HUD also displays a toast alert in the lower right of your screen on an inbound or outbound call. This allows you to direct callers to voicemail, record, or other functions without having to open the main HUD interface. The feature-rich HUD Pro client is certainly a competitive advantage Fonality has over many other Asterisk-based solutions. Though, Fonality does offer a free version HUD Lite which has a slimmed down feature-set and which works on most Asterisk flavors. HUD Lite for instance, doesn’t have on-the-fly recording, recording of others, log in & out of queues, call barging, call monitoring, and some other features. Thus, the powerful functionality in HUD Pro is a compelling reason for prospective buyers evaluating various flavors of Asterisk.

trixbox Pro supports your traditional telephony features such as auto-attendant, IVR, and voicemail. Similarly, from your desktop phone you get your traditional features such as call parking, call transfer (after a flash hook), and call conferencing. All of these work as expected. trixbox Pro also supports Ring-All (Blast Group) and similarly the ability to intercom page an extension or a group.

For trunk support, trixbox Pro supports analog, T1/E1, and now BRI. The user-friendly web-based administrator supports plug-and-play detection of your telephony hardware, which is typically Sangoma hardware in trixbox Pro. I liked the ease at which I was able to detect and configure the T1/E1 card and the two analog cards in the machine.

sangoma-fax-t1e1-analog.jpg Faxing is also supported on trixbox Pro. While faxing on Asterisk-based platforms often gets a bad rap, (due to timing/clock syncing issues) Sangoma has recently built some very good analog hardware to solve this problem. Actually, the developed a simple bridging cable that connects from the T1/E1 card to the analog hardware to keep the timing in sync. Presto, bango! - reliable faxing on an Asterisk-based platform!

trixbox Pro has extensive BLF support, although only for Aastra phones. You can easily drag-and-drop users into your BLF area on any Aastra model with BLF support. Fonality also added automatic detection and support for the Aastra 536M and 560M sidecars to extend the number of BLF keys available on your Aastra phone.

Another key feature is the built-in conference bridges. The 5 built-in conference bridges each support an unlimited number of internal participants and as many external participants as you have inbound phone lines.

Mobility features are very strong in trixbox Pro. Each user can logon to their own personal web control panel and specify rules for how/when/where they are contacted as part of their FindMe feature (see screenshot below). FindMe supports presence detection (via HUD) to know when you have walked away from your desk and thereby ring your cell phone.Further, it features a “white list” to only allow specific people to access “findme”, as well as a VIP list (spouse, important contacts) that can reach you regardless of the schedule or your HUD presence status. Very useful feature to help stay in touch with your important contacts while respecting the times you don’t wish to be contacted.

Part of FindMe, the Boomerang feature allows you to send a call that has been forwarded to your cell phone right back to any extension on your PBX. Simply press some touch-tones on your cell and the call can be redirected to your assistant or back to your own desk. You can also record calls on your mobile using Boomerang - a powerful feature. Call screening is included and one of my favorite features. The caller is prompted for their name and once again you have the choice to accept or reject the call.

Telecommuters/Home workers Support
Telecommuting support in trixbox Pro is very good. trixbox Pro’s hybrid-hosted approach means no more pesky VoIP over NAT firewall issues. I was able to take an Aastra phone I auto-provisioned in the office home with me, connect to my home broadband connection, and simply change the DNS setting on the phone to the external DNS entry of the trixbox server and voilà, I was able to make & receive calls to my extension. No need to poke any holes in the corporate firewall or my home firewall. Nice and simple.

Features:

  • Outlook Integration
  • Voicemail
  • Voicemail-to-Email
  • Hot Desk
  • Music-on-Hold
  • Scheduler
  • Night Mode New!
  • Custom CTI (AGI)
  • Analog & IP Phones
  • Call Forwarding
  • Name Directory
  • DIDs
  • Unlimited VoIP Accounts
  • PSTN Fallback
  • Branch Office Support
  • Web-based Control Panel
  • Powerful Reporting
  • Hands Free Auto Phone Provisioning
  • FAX Support
  • BLF Support
  • BRI Detection
  • E1 Support
  • Live Backup Server
  • Multiple Deployment Management
  • Conference Bridges
  • Routing by DIDs
  • Paging / Zone Paging
  • Intercom / Zone Intercom
  • Voicemail Groups
  • Advanced Call Forwarding
  • Call Return
  • Call Out
  • Custom Caller IDs
  • SMS/Pager Voicemail Notify
  • Alerts & Notifications
  • Trunks Status Pages
  • Real-Time System Graphs
  • FindMe
  • Boomerang Mobile Integration
  • Call Screening
  • Music-On-Hold (Unlimited)
  • Historical System Graphs
  • Unlimited Call Queues
  • Full Featured A.C.D.
  • Skills-Based Routing
  • Graphical Queue Reports
  • Barge Report
  • Agent Call Recording
  • Agent Variable Log-off
  • Agents on Cell Phones
  • Agents Shared across Sites
  • Real-Time Queue Stats

HUD features:

  • Operator Panel (w/ BLF)
  • Call Parking Area
  • Drag & Drop Call Control
  • Color-Coded Call Status
  • Drag & Drop to Voicemail
  • Extension Sorting
  • Enterprise Instant Messaging
  • Outlook Integration
  • Presence Management
  • Click-to-Call Mobile Phones
  • Click-to-Email
  • Desktop Alerts
  • Interactive Desktop Alerts
  • Group & User Permissions
  • Extension Grouping
  • Extension Search
  • Extension SearchQuickMenu
  • Shortcuts (Hotkeys)
  • On-the-Fly Recording
  • Queue Status
  • Agent Login/Logout
  • Call Barging (active)
  • Call Monitoring (passive)
  • Web Access to Recordings
  • Advanced CRM Integration

Some important new features in trixbox Pro 2.0 worth highlighting:
First, calendar-based scheduling has been added allowing you to have your call menu do something specific, such as special holiday greetings. trixbox Pro has had very good auto-provisioning already, but they’ve improved it in 2.0. I was able to connect several Aastra and Polycom phones on our network and trixbox Pro auto-detected them and auto-assigned them an extension in sequential order. Hands free phone auto-provisioning is supported on all supported Aastra models and Polycom models with firmware 2.2 and above.

Resellers will especially like the single-screen management for all of their customers. From one Admin web interface you can switch between installations with two clicks of the mouse in the lower-right corner of the Admin Panel.

Room for Improvement:
The call recordings (screenshot of interface below) within the web-based interface should have a memo text field to allow users to add recording details, such as caller’s name, topic discussed, etc. If you keep a lot of recordings, this will make it easier to reference them in the future.
trixbox-acd-recording-screen.jpg
I’d like to see standard-based videoconferencing support in HUD Pro. If Counterpath can offer a slick videoconferencing app (eyeBeam softphone) based on SIP and other industry standards, then surely so can Fonality. In addition to video, perhaps collaboration capabilities (WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting) would be a nice addition. This would negate the need for a separate collaboration platform, the associated licensing fees, and duplication of the same employee information which must also be maintained due to employee turnover.

One last suggestion would be to email the call recordings automatically, similar to the voicemail-to-email feature. You can of course access the recordings via the web and download & save to your local PC, but an automatic email option would be nice.

Conclusion
I was very impressed with the ease-of-use of the admin interface, and I especially liked the strong mobility features. Users will like the web-based visual voicemail and voicemail-to-email features. The web-based GUI is one of the best you’ll see on any Asterisk-based platform and it makes extensive use of AJAX and tool-tips. Lastly, HUD’s motley of features, including desktop call control, presence, and on-the-fly recording make trixbox Pro a compelling choice when deciding which IP-PBX to purchase.

Perhaps the only caveat with trixbox Pro as compared with other Asterisk-based solutions is the trixbox pricing. Many Asterisk-based solutions are extremely inexpensive, some under $1000. trixbox Pro does offer a relatively inexpensive monthly option. For instance, for trixbox Pro Call Center Edition (CCE) that I tested, it’s $11.39/month per extension for 26-50 extensions. However, the lifetime fee is $159.99/month per extension which works out to be $14,259.50 for a 50 extension IP-PBX. That’s not ‘terribly’ expensive, but it is more than some competing Asterisk-based solutions, though still much less expensive than many Nortel, Avaya, or Cisco systems.

I’m sure Fonality would argue their main competitors are not other Asterisk solutions but the “Big 3″ (Avaya, Nortel, Cisco). Further, in my past discussions with Fonality, they’ve told me that they believe they add a lot of value to the “core” Asterisk that gives it a much stronger feature-set than other Asterisk-based systems. In testing trixbox Pro I would agree that it has many features I have not seen in many other Asterisk-based systems, including HUD Pro, call screening, call recording (some others do have this), strong call center functionality (queues), easy-to-use web-based admin, etc.

I recently saw a demo of Digium’s latest version of Switchvox down at Digium’s headquarters and did notice there are features in Switchvox that trixbox Pro doesn’t have, like Web 2.0 features. I plan on doing a review on Switchvox in the near future. It’ll be interesting to compare the two. Overall, I think trixbox Pro is one of the most feature-rich IP-PBXs I’ve reviewed and I would not hesitate to recommend it to companies looking for an easy-to-use and easy to maintain IP-PBX.

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Fonality Lands $12M Financing Round from Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ)

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in September 4th, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, Chris Lyman, DFJ, Dan Rosenthal, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Fonality, SIP, TMCnet, Venture Capital, VoIP, capital, draper fisher, fisher jurvetson, funding, growth, ip pbx, skype     

Fonality, a provider of IP-PBX systems based on Asterisk, has just secured a $12 million financing round led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) Growth Fund with participation from existing investor Intel Capital. Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a well known venture capital firm backing more than 600 companies including industry-changing companies such as Hotmail, Overture, Four11, Baidu, and fellow VoIP company, Skype.

I spoke with Fonality CFO Dan Rosenthal who explained that Fonality has had  16 successive quarters of growth, and that the main goal of this funding was to grow the distribution channel and accelerate growth. As part of the financing deal, DFJ will become part of Fonality’s board. Dan said, “We’re growing at a pretty good clip. Growth takes cash. We’ve got relationships with big partners such as Dell,  PCMall coming down the line. In order to really accelerate our growth we want to make sure we’ve got the bulk and the balance sheet to support that growth.”

Dan also mentioned they are focusing on OEM distribution. He pointed to Dell’s deal earlier this year with Fonality and stated that other major co-branded and OEM branded products in lots of different places were forthcoming. PCMall being another example that Dan mentioned.

According to Fonality, they will use this additional capital to continue expanding its share of the $7B domestic telephony market and take a position in the $25B global telephony market, with a special focus on affordability and mobility for businesses with 5 - 500 people per location.

“Fonality’s model has always been to free people from the prison of their cubicles, and to do so affordably,” said Fonality CEO Chris Lyman. “But, with the rising price of gas and the increased adoption of high quality broadband, our vision of ‘your office is the world’ is nearly upon us. This investment by DFJ and Intel Capital, two top-tier investment firms, gives us the freedom to further accelerate our growth and acquisition strategy.”

Randy Glein, managing director of DFJ Growth Fund, has joined Fonality’s board of directors. “Fonality is the right solution at the right time,” said Glein. “The company has developed a powerful, affordable communications platform for small and medium-sized businesses, allowing Fonality-enabled businesses to compete more effectively in the global economy. Fonality combines the benefits of open source development, rich proprietary features, and professional support to help its 5,000 customers take advantage of the latest communications innovations very affordably. Fonality supports workers wherever they are and lets them communicate inside and outside their organizations with easy-to-use software available everywhere, on any device.”

Earlier this year, the company launched a relationship with Dell to sell Fonality products online at Dell.com and via Dell telephone sales. Fonality currently has 140 employees, offices in three countries, and operates four global data centers.

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Fonality Scores $12M for Open Source PBX

by Stacey Higginbotham in September 4th, 2008   
Topics: Dell, Draper Fisher Jurvestson, Fonality, Intel Capital, Startups, Voice     

When the times get tough the tough choose cheaper, open-source phone systems. Such seems to be the theme of Fonality CFO Dan Rosenthal’s chat with me about the company’s latest $12 million venture funding led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth Fund with participation from existing investor Intel Capital. And you know, I don’t think he’s […]

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BroadSoft, Fonality, and ITEXPO news all rolled in one

by VoIP & Gadgets Blog in July 16th, 2008   
Topics: Asterisk, BroadSoft, BroadWorks, Fonality, ITEXPO, Michael Tessler, News, SIP, Service Providers, VoIP, VoIP conference, fonality products, sip trunking, smb     





itexpo-logo.jpg


broadsoft-logo.gif

Some BroadSoft, Fonality, and ITEXPO news all rolled in one. First, TMC put out a release about BroadSoft keynoting the next ITEXPO, the leading VoIP conference:

The energy behind the upcoming ITEXPO West 2008 (www.ITEXPO.com), the industry’s only Major Communications event taking place this Fall, continues to grow everyday. The most recent news - Broadsoft CEO, Michael Tessler, has committed to delivering a keynote speech, which will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2008, at 3 p.m. at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This news, while significant, is only one of many reasons not to miss this year’s conference. For a full agenda, please visit: http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/west-08/w08-conferences.aspx.

BroadSoft, a SIP-based service provider, also announced today that they’ve teamed up with Fonality to offer managed IP PBX for service providers. BroadSoft certified that Fonality with BroadWorks, annd Fonality Welcomes BroadSoft into its FACE Program.

Fonality®, the leading provider of open-source phone systems, and BroadSoft Inc., the leading provider of VoIP application software, announced today that the two companies have certified their products to work together, enabling service providers to market and deploy Fonality to their small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers with confidence. BroadSoft®, which provides VoIP applications and SIP trunking to seven of the top 10 and 13 of the 25 largest carriers worldwide, has completed certification of Fonality trixbox® Pro and PBXtra® with BroadWorks®, BroadSoft’s industry-leading VoIP application platform for fixed-line and wireless service providers. BroadSoft has also joined the Fonality Authorized Certified Ecosystem (FACE).

BroadWorks offers a range of carrier-grade applications that includes hosted PBX, unified communications, mobile PBX, business trunking, and residential broadband. Fonality products include a family of open-source-based, hybrid-hosted IP PBX offerings tailored for SMBs. By certifying the products together, the companies offer service providers a complete line of hosted and premise-based unified communications offerings for customers of all sizes.

“By collaborating with Fonality, we’re giving service providers a way to go to market quickly with fully integrated, market-tested offerings for smaller companies,” said Leslie Ferry, Vice President of Marketing for BroadSoft. “Service providers can now take new products to their customers with the confidence that comes from knowing that both companies’ solutions will work together seamlessly.”

“BroadSoft is the dominant VoIP platform deployed by service providers and MSOs,” said Chris Vuillaume, Vice President of Business Development and Channels at Fonality. “Their certification is an important stamp of approval for Fonality products and expands our market opportunity to include Tier 1 and Tier 2 providers.”

Fonality business phone systems are designed for modern workplaces, accommodating companies that have a mix of office, mobile and home-based workers. Fonality solutions support both VoIP calling and traditional phone lines, allowing a smooth transition for businesses upgrading their calling services. Its patented, hybrid-hosted architecture allows employee identity to be maintained as they travel between work, home and hotels. Fonality products, when paired with the award-winning HUD® presence software, provide a unified view of Instant Messaging, e-mail and calling for all fixed and mobile workers.

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