Customers that have made the switch to PBXware 3.8 have been very pleased with the service. One customer emailed us saying:
Thank you for upgrading our [Multi-Tenant PBX] to 3.8. We woke up early this morning in anticipation of calls from customers and there were none. Nice job! Bicom ROCKS!
This latest advert claims “Contact the Only Total, One-Stop, Global VoIP Solution Provider Now!” Given that they seek to pass off as Bicom Systems they know well there is at least one other provider of similar qualification yet who could really be sure there are none other in this wide world?
Maybe it is just themselves they are trying to deceive?
We shall see.
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It’s probably long overdue that this article is written. Not least before memories become too distant.
2003 and the world was a different place. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King was out, The Matrix Reloaded although I only got to see Charlie’s Angels remake. There was no Fonality, no Switchvox, no 101 others trying to be the next best thing that would come and go – alas Trixbox.
Well just code, dreams and some cards to be more precise Sangoma Cards … and Mark Spencer. Oh and a lot of shooting in the dark and I don’t just mean Charlie’s Angels. There was Pingtel (remember that) and there was Asterisk and there was some CRM and CMS software we had left over. A friend showed us Asterisk, we saw what could be done to pull this together and we worked. Then we worked some more. Then we prayed that Asterisk might yet stabilize to version 1.0
By 2004, matters were beginning to get more contentious Michael Moore released Farenheit 911, but no, my movie of the year was not Shrek II – I got to see The Incredibles.
For the first time in the History of the World … well before get too far on that one … hmm … well we’ve still to find out otherwise. Yeup an open source telephony engine, not delivered as another ‘open source project’ but professional, warranted and with the purpose of quick & easy commercial deployment. Something a reseller could be proud to stand behind. The ‘best of both worlds’: Open Source flexibility with the guaranteed to work. This would later transpire to part of the Bicom Systems winning formula of ‘bespoke deployments’ for the ‘cost of off-the-shelf’. It would also see us find other Open Source Telephony Projects such as Kamilio & Erlang that could be brought into a professional wrapper. It would also see the turnkey principal edge towards the desktop and now mobile and towards the automation of service providers.
Then we bought an air ticket to Atlanta Georgia. The hotel we were booked into was wonderful as long as the rooms were still there following the hurricane – we stayed downtown instead.
As the conference gathered momentum the questions were asked. Not least ‘could anyone design a general purpose all encompassing GUI for Asterisk?’ The floor was quiet and Mark Spencer had all eyes pointing towards him. We had to get out before the tension of what had done got to hot to bear – time for a drink.
We came out of the hotel to find out that the Dukes of Hazard possibly were not real and made our way downtown. There we begun to realize Michael Moore may have had a point that American was changing for sure we could see there was more chance of finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq than somewhere to get a beer to drink in downtown Atlanta. As reality became fantasy we even stopped a cop who after being comforted we had no mal-intent upon approaching him gladly wished to help but then realized he too knew of nowhere to scorch a parched soul. Fortunately a local who walked the area regularly and purposefully approached us and asked “are you looking for somewhere to drink? I’ll take you for a dollar.” He did and we never looked back. The next day …
PBXware was released in a workshop room and then we showed it to Mark Spencer.
I am not sure really what Mark thought of our efforts. We hope though it provided the community with inspiration for many options that followed. That Multi-Tenant Edition we brought forward in 2005, the desktop applications, outlook but – we know though we need to do more and so much is again coming this year – stay tuned.
Still though – a big thank you to Mark Spencer for Asterisk. It helped.
It is always with caution that one should speak of competitors and their products when clearly they are better able to do so themselves. All the more so with IPSMARX, given how IPSMARX has positioned itself ‘as’ Bicom Systems. I have though wondered more and more why they do so up against PBXware MultiTenant PBX. Here are some reasons that might help with understandings:
I am demanded to reply to this question orally on a weekly basis and it seems only right to write. Curious about this question too is the clear circumstances in which it is asked. These can be described in three categories: i) Existing users of IPSMARX’s Multi-Tenant PBX who have had reason to look further ii) New Providers looking to start a business line with little resource iii) Well established businesses either ITSPs, VARs or Long Established Sellers of Phone Systems.
For the first group, customers have dial tone. However the Service Provider’s hands are now so filled with the running of their business that the cost of keeping the system becomes all consuming. Very noticeable is with how few extensions on the system and the pain threshold seems to bite. So often, fewer than 100 subscribers – a pocketful of customers. A customer wants a Queue, a Conference, an IVR… then “surely this should need no more effort than a check-box selection to solve everything from the feature’s creation to the monthly invoice going out ?” Surely it should not need custom programming from the switch provider for each small tweak? There also are issues of support. Again the sheer stress that happens once ‘real customers’ come on board and previously naive dreams are exposed. Answers need to be found immediately both to ‘how do I do x,y,z ?’ questions and less often bugs or critical failings. Increasingly the need for integration to the desktop is a make or break to getting End User businesses.
Whether in the form of onsite systems from the Traditional Vendors or the large Internet Telephony Service Providers often using Broadsoft platforms the market at large expects standard offerings to have presence, chat and more at the finger tips. Mobility is next. Not just a breeze blowing softly but rushing winds. A simple SIP client is not where the world will be. Mobility means the user should be an integral part of the local switch.
What has also been learned through the school of hard knocks is problems that the next customer wants something unique. You never quite know what and unless the system is inherently flexible you will be left just listening to the screams. For some though there is the matter of scalability. To simply ‘add another server’ and ‘stick on another few hundred customers’ is not enough. All the customers need to be brought together in a single interface to be found easily and redundancy needs to be in clusters often with the options of dual location.
If you found this useful or can add please feel free to post, Parts II (Cost of Entry) & III (It has to work and it has to do more) are to follow and of course our whitepaper on How to Start an ITSP.
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Since I posted the previous posts we have been slightly taken aback with the response we have had. Some customers of Thirdlane multi-tenant pbx were so dissatisfied they wanted to ask for their monies back. However it is the numbers of customers contacting us about ippbx systems seems to be growing at quite a rate that most takes our breath away.
Many at the brink of decision, some having just placed deposits, others already with established customer bases.
At first we could not understand why this was so prevalent. However the more we speak with Thirdlane Multi-Tenant PBX customers the more we come to understand that sooner or later that wall is hit and there seems no way round or beyond.
A good example is Unified Communications. The market wants it, is insisting on it – but there’s just a big gap. Where’s the GLOCOM?
How does one scale? Where’s the billing integrated or held together somehow?
What about a provisioning platform?
It is though the cost of maintaining Thirdlane that seems to hurt. The cost of support.
However we’ll leave you to your own conclusions compared with :
To see is to believe.
The problem also is clear that the longer this goes on the more ippbx customers will be stuck in one set of infrastructure and dissatisfied to the point they must look elsewhere.
So – what can we do to help ?
Here’s our offer:
Any deposit paid to Thirdlane in the past 3 months we will refund on purchase of a PBXware TELCO Solution from Bicom Systems.
Any existing deployment : we will provide sufficient software to take over the existing customers, FREE.
We will also provide a transition roadmap to assist with the process.
www.bicomsystems.com/myaccount/ please sign up today and ask for a call from a dedicated and experienced Account Manger.