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Complete Change in the Composition of PBX: ITEXPO 2010 Speaker

TMCnews Featured Article


January 04, 2010

Complete Change in the Composition of PBX: ITEXPO 2010 Speaker

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor


The demand for smartphones continues to rise and so far the competition between the major players – including iPhone, BlackBerry (News - Alert) and Android – but will there be a major industry player? According to CEO and Co-Founder of Xorcom Eran Gal, the answer is a resounding “no.” Gal recently talked with TMCnet’s Rich Tehrani (News - Alert) – the full interview is provided below – and shared his insight on the key features that will take priority in purchasing decisions. 


As for high-definition voice, Gal believes price will continue to be a deciding factor on the corporate side, although consumers are much more willing to spend. Despite the recession of 2009, Xorcom experienced positive growth. Gal anticipates that 2010 will be a much better year, with signs already emerging. As for market growth, Gal points to cellular devices, cloud computing, real unified messaging and open source PBX (News - Alert) as offering the greatest opportunity.

One market area in particular – open source PBX – will experience a complete change in composition. As a speaker at ITEXPO East 2010, Gal plans to show unmatched high-availability open source telephony systems. As for why customers may want Xorcom to provide its telephony solution, Gal promises a unique solution that delivers scalable and flexible with complete integral support both in IP telephony and all common standards of traditional telephony.

Their exchange follows:
 
Rich Tehrani: Smartphones continue to rise, find their ways into offices and homes alike. Who will dominate that market and why?
 
I don’t think a single player will dominate the market. However, for business applications, I believe excellent e-mail applications support is key. The Web browsing function, which is not quite mature, should also be strong. This is extremely important as we are looking at more and more hosted applications operating in the “cloud.” Last but not least: an integrated SIP client. I believe making your mobile phone behave as an extension of the PBX, when required, is an important part of real unified messaging. Nokia (News - Alert) did a very good job with their integrated SIP client. There are also some good external SIP clients available for all the popular operating systems.
 
RT: We hear more and more about high-definition voice features in IP communications products and services. What is going to drive wideband audio and HD VoIP into the mainstream market? How long will it take?
 
There have been tremendous advances in infrastructure capabilities over the last few years. The bandwidth growth rate is exponential. As the infrastructure becomes available people will definitely demand high-definition. The other parameter is the cost of end-devices. The trend we see is that end users are willing to pay much more for devices than in the past. This behavior, however, it is not necessarily mirrored in business, where calculations are done more systematically and equipment is often times not easily replaced. I believe these factors will eventually set the pace of adoption in the business world.
 
RT: We entered 2009 in a recession and now we’re seeing signs of the economy picking up. How did the slow economy affect demand for your products and services and what are you anticipating in 2010?
 
We have experienced firm positive growth, albeit at a lower rate than expected. According to the data we have, the proprietary IP PBX market was more or less stagnant in 2009 while the open-source PBX market kept growing. Still, we did see companies in our niche significantly shrink and even go out of business at a higher rate this year. 
I estimate 2010 to be much better than 2009, and already see some positive signs. However, I must say that some parts of the world – some European countries, for example – were severely hit by the recession and recovery will probably take longer there.
 
RT: What are some of the areas of market growth in the next few years?
 
Cellular devices, cloud computing, real unified messaging, and, of course the one which is closest to our heart – open source PBX. The tremendous growth of open source PBX doesn’t merely mean that one technology will rise at the expense of another; rather it signifies a complete change in the composition of the PBX market. The total R&D effort will increase significantly, spreading out over a much larger number of companies. We will see more local companies coming up with their own solutions and more custom or niche solutions popping up faster than ever before. As a result of this observation, we at Xorcom have worked hard to provide telephony platforms that meet the needs of this growing open source telephony applications market.
 
RT: I understand you are exhibiting Jan. 20 to 22 at ITEXPO East 2010 in Miami. What will you show there? Describe the companies or people who should come to your exhibit.
 
We are going to show unmatched high-availability open source telephony systems. This is not simply a solution that can provide failover for this or that component, but rather it is a revolutionary concept that allows full redundancy for all the IP and traditional telephony in a complete enterprise-ready system for organizations that must have 99.999 percent uptime from their phone system.
 
In addition, we are going to show a high-density E1/T1 interface for Asterisk (News - Alert) that is capable of driving up to 16 E1/T1’s (up to 512 channels) in a single 1U chassis.
We will show the next generation of our enterprise PBX featuring advanced monitoring and maintenance capabilities, plus a unique backup and restore mechanism.
These solutions appeal to SMB and larger organizations – up to 1,000 users – who require enterprise class telephony at a competitive price. We also invite system integrators, CLECs and VARs to stop by, since we are interested in expanding our distribution channel.
 
RT: Why should customers choose your company’s solutions? How do they justify the expense to management?
 
In the case of high-availability, it is a no brainer. We have a unique solution: scalable, flexible, with complete integral support both in IP telephony and all common standards of traditional telephony. It is unmatched in the Asterisk arena and competitively priced. Customers who need this kind of reliability finally have a first class solution.

To find out more about Xorcom, visit the company at ITEXPO East 2010. To be held Jan. 20 to 22 in Miami, ITEXPO is the world’s premier IP communications event. Visit silver sponsor Xorcom in booth #D07. Don’t wait. Register now.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Erin Harrison







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