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Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are wising up to the benefits of IP PBX (News - Alert). At least that’s the impression given by Switchvox’s record revenue growth. The company, which specializes in providing PBX and VoIP phone systems to SMBs, has recently announced revenue growth of more than 100 percent quarter-over-quarter during 2006. What’s more, Switchvox (News - Alert) has gained widespread traction within the SMB community, with its IP PBX systems now installed in 20 countries.

Switchvox’s reseller program has been a major driving force for the revenue growth and international expansion in the past year. The company has seen a 60 percent increase in the number of systems sold by resellers in 2006 over 2005. Channel partners now account for 70 percent of Switchvox sales, with the remainder coming from referrals and direct sales.

“We have seen the overall IP PBX market education grow leaps and bounds in the SMB community this past year and expect to see that continue into 2007,” said Joshua Stephens, CEO of Switchvox, in a press release. “With the help of our channel partners this has been our most successful year. Our customers are among the leaders in adopting new technologies to improve the way they communicate using easy to install and manage IP PBX systems.”

Switchvox is built from open source software and uses open standards. It works with all Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) compatible hardware and software phones as well as standard analog handsets, rather than typical PBXs that rely on proprietary telephones. VoIP can be used to send calls over the Internet worldwide and directly to remote corporate offices by peering Switchvox systems using the SIP or Inter-Asterisk (News - Alert) eXchange (IAX) protocols.

According to research from Analysis Consulting, small business VoIP adoption (companies with around 50 employees) is predicted to grow from 100,000 in 2004 to 800,000 VoIP subscriptions by 2008. InfoTech predicts that by 2008, SMBs will spend $5 billion worldwide on VoIP, compared with just $41 million in 2003.

In addition to Switchvox’s record financial results, the company also opened the first fulfillment facility in San Diego in Q2 2006, doubled the number of employees since 2005, issued three major software releases for Switchvox SMB in 2006, along with two major software releases for Switchvox SOHO in 2006.

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Cindy Waxer is a Toronto-based freelance journalist specializing in business and technology. She has written for publications including TIME, Fortune Small Business, Business 2.0, Computerworld, Canadian Business, and Workforce Management. To see more of her articles, please visit Cindy Waxer’s columnist page.