IP Telephony: Calling The Shots

IP telephony IP

SMB-Centric: Avaya's IP Office Release 5 and Digium's Switchvox PBX

Avaya in September debuted a new version of IP Office, its primary unified communications offering for small and midsize businesses.

The update, IP Office Release 5, is software that can be customized to meet the needs of workplace roles such as a tele-worker or mobile worker, allowing VARs to more easily identify what applications are needed for which customers.

IP Office also supports up to 384 users using the IP Office 500 Server, which, according to Avaya, will now be its single hardware platform for IP Office, although Release 5 will work with existing 406v2 and 412 servers as well.

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

Avaya began rolling out IP Office Release 5 to channel partners in early August. Among several additional features, Release 5 uses productivity applications and a call reporting application, Customer Call Reporter, both accessible via a Web browser. It further offers support for third-party SIP phones, and in addition to the increased user capacity, conferencing capacity has doubled and now comes as two 64-party bridges.

Release 5 also has a business continuity hook for businesses that have multiple sites. It can use servers at alternate sites so that if one site goes down, the IP communications network will automatically come back up at another.

The goal, according to Avaya, was to give SMBs expanded options with their IP communications without having to do a massive upgrade.

"It enables business to do things faster and more efficiently, and that'll turn into profits," said Joe Scotto, director, small and medium business communications, at Avaya. "The No. 1 pain point was around keeping existing customers spending but also helping them reduce expenses."

"We had a regional bank that had IP Office, and they grew and were faced with going with an enterprise solution," said Bobby Stewart, president, enterprise networks, at CCI Telecom, a Statesville, N.C.-based solution provider. "But because of release 5, we can upgrade them for about a third of the price as an enterprise solution would be."

The move toward using Web applications to manage IP Office has been similarly appealing, Stewart said.

"If we go into Mac or Linux-only shops, we can deploy our apps and give them what they want. I have a bunch, plus my Windows desktop, and they're all running the same identical Avaya apps," he said. "That also frees up my technical staff. To us that's huge, very huge."

Open-source VoIP gear maker Digium's Switchvox IP PBX line -- a portfolio of VoIP phone systems -- is also designed with the needs of SMBs in mind, even getting down to the SOHO level with Switchvox SOHO.

Back in February, Digium updated the Switchvox IP PBXes with Switchvox SMB 4.0, which includes features such as Webaware unified communications (fax, video and chat), switchboard panel additions, call-queue enhancements, and a Windows desktop client called Switchvox Notifier that interacts with Microsoft Office applications for pop-up call notifications and histories and one-click options to add Outlook contacts and dial numbers.

For VARs, according to Digium's director of product marketing for Switchvox, Tristan Dugenhardt, the Switchvox enhancements offer a new way to add services by writing applications through the XML API. Solution providers can also offer clients an alternative to having a separate chat server and fax server by having both prebuilt into the appliance.

The updates also further a reseller's ability to create custom VoIP solutions for their clients. The addition of auto-configuration of Snom, along with its Polycom integration, also alleviates the need for VARs to manually configure customers' devices.

Dugenhardt said Switchvox SMB 4.0 is available for free to customers with a Switchvox SMB software subscription. For new customers, the software starts at $3,390 for a 10-user system, including hardware, software, a one-year subscription and warranty. Higher Ed Likes Toshiba's Strata CIX VoIP System

Toshiba in June launched its Unified Communications Suite, an all-in-one software package that ties together all of Toshiba's UC applications and was made available through Toshiba's authorized network of dealers.

The UC Suite combines such features as presence and instant messaging, outbound dialing from any application, desktop call control, CRM integration and screen-pops, off-premise call forwarding, personal call handling, fixed mobile convergence, video conferencing and collaboration, and unified messaging. The suite is designed to complement Toshiba's primary VoIP product, the Strata CIX VoIP system.

"With Toshiba's new Unified Communications Suite, Strata CIX VoIP system users get a full suite of unified communications applications on a single server that provides an affordable entry to unified communications without sacrificing any features," said Brian Metherell, vice president and general manager for Toshiba Information Systems, Telecommunication Systems Division, in a statement.

Toshiba has seen success with Strata CIX this year as it expands the VoIP product line's penetration into key verticals like education.

A recent deployment at Westminster College in Missouri, for example, brought the Strata VIX VoIP business telephone system -- combined with Toshiba's Strata Media Application Server and Twist Networks' SIP Trunking -- to Westminster's 1,000-plus users to help manage 20,000 incoming calls per month, 28 on-campus buildings and 10 remote locations.

The deployment was handled by Communications Technologies Inc. (CTI), a St. Louis-based solution provider. According to CTI and Toshiba, the deployment will save Westminster $170,000 over the course of seven years thanks to how it improves the college's IP communications efficiency.

Siemens Deals In UC To HC

A big win for Siemens Enterprise Network Communications Group and PosTrack Technologies came from Ottawa Regional Hospital and Healthcare Center, with the companies chosen for a major UC-based health-care enterprise deployment with a managed services component.

Ultimately, Ottawa settled on a hosted UC solution based on OpenScape Voice Application, a scalable native SIP solution that's attractive to health-care and other enterprises for how it centralizes voice and data into a single communication stream. It's a hosted solution that also includes 24x7 fault monitoring and service desk support -- music to the ears of any cash-strapped hospital -- plus a direct connection between PosTrack and the Illinois Century Network to allow PosTrack faster access to additional services if needed.

"One of the key drivers for us to deploy this new, hosted solution was the cost savings," said Curt Sesto, director of facilities, construction management and electronics at Ottawa Regional. "[Siemens Enterprise Network] Group and PosTrack were able to show that we could conservatively save $150,000 over a 60-month period by upgrading our system and moving to a hosted solution. At first I was nervous about not having the communications equipment on-site, but after touring PosTrack's state-of-the-art facilities, I realized that we could get a superior, carrier-grade system for much less than traditional on-premise costs, without having to worry as much about additional dedicated resources." Newcomers Squeeze In

As the IP telephony market continues to grow in both volume and sophistication, new competitors of all sizes are ramping up their efforts. San Diego-based TelCentris is one of them.

TelCentris in late September unveiled its first channel partner program for agents and dealers interested in reselling its portfolio of VoIP services. Among those are VoxPBX, a hosted virtual PBX telephone system; VoxTrunk, which the company describes as "the virtual equivalent of lines coming in from the phone company or channels on a T1 line;" and various data circuits and data plans that TelCentris will customize for customers' VoIP plans.

The company is perhaps best known for VoxOx, a consumer tool that first launched in November 2008 as an alternative to popular services like Skype in that it was not only a VoIP tool but also a program that united voice, video, instant messaging, texting, e-mail, fax and social networking tools into a single, free desktop application.

Now, the company is building out its business-to-business product portfolio and looking to expand a management team that most recently added Erik Bratt -- a former Microsoft exec and part of Bill Gates' Trustworthy Computing division -- to be TelCentris' new vice president of corporate communications.

"We have a lot of folks who came from different carriers themselves, as well as from PBX manufacturers, too," said Perry King, senior product manager for business services at TelCentris. "Having a strong agent and dealer channel is paramount to moving forward and growing an organization. We're looking to grow it very significantly over the next six months."

Through the end of the year, TelCentris is offering partners 20 percent commission on all partner sales, no revenue commitment minimum for agent and dealer partners, and one month of voice monthly reoccurring charge (MRC) to be paid to all partners beyond standard commission on three-year deals.

TelCentris is also planning to continue its practice of giving partners 50 percent of installation fees collected.

"We'll look to additional discount levels on an as-needed basis," King said. "We're one of the very few providers that can provide a fully hosted PBX and integrated call center solution -- you can purchase everything from TelCentris without having to piecemeal things. Our customers vary pretty widely but we can focus on small to medium-sized business in a lot of key verticals like real estate, insurance and legal."

Skype Gets Serious About The Channel

Skype will make a formal entry into the value-added channel as it prepares to take the wraps off a partner program -- an effort to integrate its popular peer-to-peer VoIP software application into business environments with the help of VARs, ISVs and other potential partners.

Skype will offer lead generation, marketing support and technical support, said Chaim Haas, a Skype spokesman from the public relations firm Kaplow, confirming some details of Skype's program. He didn't disclose pricing, didn't specify the exact date of program launch and didn't confirm if Skype had yet recruited any partners, but said Skype is inviting potential solution providers to sign up for more information through its Web site.

"We're still in the process of finalizing all the specific details and what we're going to be asking of channel partners and how we're going to be reimbursing them," Haas said.

The confirmation came the same week Skype's Chief Strategy Officer, Christopher Dean, discussed Skype's partner program at the VON Conference & Expo held in South Beach, Fla.

Dean said he sees Skype's need for the channel as helping to expand coverage, reduce selling costs and provide access to industry expertise, and said Skype wishes to partner with wireline carriers, wireless carriers, MSOs, OEMs, VARs, application developers and ISVs as it builds out its business presence.

Dean also discussed the proliferation of unified communications in business settings, as well as adoption of cloud services, and then framed Skype around the idea that while principally a consumer-centric product, Skype is finally seeing penetration as a business tool. According to a Skype survey, 35 percent of users now use Skype for business purposes, and Dean also quoted research suggesting that 90 percent of smartphones have or would soon have Skype available for download.

Dean noted in his presentation that it would educate service providers through an online Skype Academy.

"Skype is looking for service partners who have the knowledge to advise, guide and service business customers' needs for VoIP, SIP, PBX and UC solutions," the introduction on the its Web site reads. "In exchange, this program will offer you the benefits of partnering with a global leader in communications software, the opportunity to capture new customers and to tap into incremental service revenue streams."