SIP Integration A Top Priority For Vendors At Fall VON

Product integration built on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) will be a cornerstone of the show. Among the vendors teaming to build broader IP communications solutions are telecom giant Siemens Communications and call center technology vendor Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories; Pingtel, Intel and AudioCodes; and Radvision and Microsoft.

VoIP performance management and testing tools from Apparent Networks and Visual Networks will also be in the spotlight. In addition, vendors and service providers such as TalkSwitch will woo solution providers with new channel programs.

Solution providers say the market for VoIP and IP communications is booming.

“We&re doubling our revenue in less than three months, and 80 percent of that has been VoIP-based,” said James Pelletier, president of Vancouver Communications Services, Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Pelletier said he sees a one-year window of opportunity for rapid growth, after which VoIP product sales could slow as more large carriers and service providers come online with hosted VoIP services.

Some channel partners say sales of hosted VoIP services could provide an even bigger sales opportunity than IP telephony equipment.

Michael Simmons, president of MAS Enterprises, said the recurring revenue he gets from selling VoIP services from Las Vegas-based Anexeon Communications and CommPartners is key to his growth strategy.

“For me, on a revenue basis, there&s just nothing like it,” Simmons said, noting that he makes a minimum 35 percent margin on the hosted services he sells.

Hosted VoIP providers such as CommPartners and M5 Networks will be at VON to tout their channel efforts and recruit new partners.

Also at the conference, Siemens Communications, Boca Raton, Fla., will show how it is using SIP to tie its VoIP platform with call center technology from Genesys, Daly City, Calif. Siemens is integrating its HiPath 8000 Real-Time IP System with the Genesys 7 portfolio of contact center management applications, providing opportunities for centralized management and reduced cost of ownership. The combined solution also supports interoperability with legacy systems.

Pingtel, Woburn, Mass., is joining with Intel and VoIP gateway vendor Audio- Codes to launch the new SIPxchange PBX Appliance. Based on SIP, the new appliance will come preconfigured to work with IP phones from Polycom, though enterprise customers can opt to use SIP-based phones from other vendors.

Radvision, Fair Lawn, N.J., will demonstrate its Click to Meet for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server, which enables multiparty audio, video and data sessions within Microsoft&s Office Communicator. Click to Meet for Microsoft Office Live Meeting integrates multipoint audio and video with Web conferencing.

With so much emphasis on SIP, Jonathan Rosenberg, co-author of the SIP standard and director of VoIP service provider architecture at Cisco Systems, will participate in a panel discussion on the status of the protocol.

On the channel front, Ottawa, Ontario-based TalkSwitch will roll out its TalkSwitch and You partner program, under which it is launching partner certifications and segmenting its 1,000 North American channel into Authorized, Gold and Platinum.

Solution providers in the top two tiers will receive higher margins and access to Web-based technical training and incentive programs such as Zero to Fifty, which provides extra discounts to partners that reach $50,000 per month in sales for the first time. “We&re launching the new program to help recognize that channel partners are an important part of our business, to generate more business through them and to attract new partners,” said Tim Welch, vice president of sales.

Meanwhile, Apparent Networks will present a high-octane management tool that tracks down latency in networks running VoIP traffic. AppareNet Enterprise Voice is agentless software that in the course of an afternoon can run a comprehensive evaluation of the network bandwidth of even the largest enterprise, said Chris Norris, a research scientist at Apparent Networks, Vancouver, B.C.

“It&s an awesome diagnostic tool,” said Michael Bottacio, president of Invictus Converged Solutions, a New York-based technology consultant. “It detects more than just VoIP because in some cases a slow network might be caused by other hardware, the NIC cards could be bad, or the switches may have duplex mismatches.”

Also at VON, Visual Networks, Rockville, Md., is rolling out a new tool that generates synthetic VoIP traffic to track network performance.