Thanks for returning. You're a very smart person.
Okay. I am no Paul Revere and thankfully the sheer magnitude of this “ride” will undoubtedly be far less impact on history then his. However, this big new competitor, one who for so long has been looking in on the VoIP industry from a far, is now quickly coming down the hills, up the road and walking into the doors of your customers. Windows based telephony platforms are coming on strong folks - and they are ready to invade the small medium business telephony marketplace in a big way.
If you have been have been following me for the last three years, you might find this warning a little strange. After all, I have been working and with open source telephony solutions since I got my start in this industry. It’s not that I have given up on open source and Linux based solutions in favor of ones built a top a Microsoft framework, in fact that is quite the opposite. I remain very optimistic about the continued growth of open source base solutions like Asterisk and trixbox CE.
The reason I heed the warning, directed at the entire open source ecosystem, is because I am afraid that as open source platforms have continued to grow and continued to try to do everything and everything, they have left behind a huge section of the market that the current and future Windows based offerings are well positioned to meet.
I’m not just talking about Microsoft Response Point. There is 3CX, PBXnSIP and CallButler from Telephony2. All three of these solutions, in addition to Response Point are built on the adage of making VoIP phone systems easy for a small business. The positioning of the products, the messaging and the Microsoft name all scream a message that resonates with the largest sector of American businesses - the small ones. Don’t believe me? We recently launched the Response Point product line at VoIP Supply. It was one of the most talked about product launches within our customer base in the last 18 months.
Sure, a small medium business can be succesfull with an open source solution. I have used most of the major platforms as a user and have had a hand in the deployment of thousands of others. This is not a question of whether open source works, but one of whether or not open source platforms, due to their very nature, have gone past the point of relevancy for a small medium business. As open source platforms have morphed from cheap phone systems to incredibly flexible platforms they now include features, functions and benefits that far exceed what small business customers are looking for.
Maybe it is a double-edged sword or maybe it is just the evolution of the technology, but today’s open source platforms are quickly moving up the ladder. They are becoming unified communications systems and have left the door open for the Windows folks to find a very profitable home in the small medium business sector. Open source platforms will still play a part in the small medium business space, but how large and for how long really remains to be seen.
But one thing is for certain; the Windows guys are coming, and they are coming fast.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
pbxnsip also runs on linux, freebsd, and MAC.
I have never used CallButler but the other systems are vastly different in feature sets.
@db:
I know. I made sure to include them because if I didn’t I would hear about it.
While the systems vary, I will say that in having used them, they are a very easy to use, something that can’t be said for most/many of the open source platforms.
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