Switchvox has changed considerably from version 4.6 to 5.X! Here is an overview of the enhancements and changes so you see quickly what to expect when you update to version 5.X.

Please give me your thoughts.

Randy

Randy Kremlacek is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted PBX’s, SIP trunking and Unified Communications.

Digium®, Inc., the Asterisk Company, announced that its Switchvox unified communications (UC) solutions are rapidly making inroads in the K-12 and higher education markets. Switchvox is based on Asterisk, the world's most widely adopted open source communications software. This allows Switchvox to deliver a wide range of powerful features, at an average cost savings of up to 80 percent over comparable phone systems. Educational institutions can set up and configure Switchvox quickly, then easily make changes over time, such as assigning new extensions, to the system. It is widely available from Digium's many partners. (Teledynamic Communications is the leading Digium Switchvox dealer in Northern California).

Switchvox provides powerful communications features that support teacher and staff productivity and mobility, such as integration with web applications to allow information about a student to appear when a parent calls the school, as well as instant messaging and conferencing. Schools may find certain features particularly appealing, such as support for paging, a predictive dialer, which can help alert families of delays and cancelations, and automatic call recording for certain incoming calls or ability to keep others private. The system also helps educational institutions save money and gain flexibility by avoiding vendor lock-in. Customers can choose voice over IP (VoIP) or analog lines and any IP phones.

A wide range of schools, from pre-K through higher education, and businesses that support education have selected Switchvox in recent months. A few include:

• The Earth Institute, Columbia University (New York, N.Y.)—Brings together the people and tools needed to address some of the world's most difficult problems, from climate change and environmental degradation, to poverty, disease and the sustainable use of resources.
• Summit Public Schools (Redwood City, Calif.)—Two high schools in Redwood City and, beginning in the fall of 2011, two in San Jose that focus on preparing all students for college.
• University of Puerto Rico (San Juan, P.R.)—The state university system of Puerto Rico.
• S-Trip (Toronto, Ont.)—A North American student travel company established in 1976.
• School Improvement Network (Midvale, Utah)—Award-winning provider of online, on-demand professional development videos for K-12 teachers and educators to improve student achievement.
• Southeast Kansas Education Service Center (Topeka, Kan.)—Operates community learning centers and alternative education programs to give students who have previously dropped out-of-school a second chance to receive a high school diploma.

Should you wish to learn more about the unique capabilities of the Switchvox in the education environment, please contact us.

Randy

Randy Kremlacek is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted PBX’s, SIP trunking and Unified Communications.

The biggest splash is their new mobile integration - what  the industry calls "Fixed Mobile Convergence" or FMC for short.  It effectively ties in your mobile users wtih the company PBX.  The Switchvox can receive, transfer and record calls from any phone and any location through Switchvox. With the mobile apps for the iPhone and Blackberry, you can  access features of
Switchvox from your smart phone.

I've spent a lot of time in the field talking to customers lately, and they are looking for a way to bring their mobile users into their telephone system and to be able to manage communications better.  This new software accomplishes just that, so Digium really hit the nail on the head.   And, as usual, it's included in the price of the system unlike the other manufacturers.   For example, on a Shoretel System it requires their Roam-Anywhere Mobility Router at $5,000 plus installation versus the Switchvox where it's included in the price.   See why I'm so excited?

The research firm Frost & Sullivan chose to award Digium with the Customer Value Enhancement Award.  You can download the report here.

Pretty exciting days here at Teledynamic!

Randy

Randy Kremlacek is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted PBX’s, SIP trunking and Unified Communications.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Digium®, Inc., the Asterisk® Company, today introduced Switchvox 5.0, a new version that adds fixed mobile convergence (FMC) and further integration with third-party business applications into its full-featured and cost-effective voice over IP (VoIP) unified communications (UC) solution designed for small- to mid-sized businesses. The new release enhances Switchvox mobility to allow users to seamlessly integrate any type of phone with Switchvox. Users can select up to six phones of any type, including VoIP, digital, analog, smartphone or a soft phone, to converge with their Switchvox extension. The user can now route, record or transfer calls appropriately, at any location. Users of Switchvox SMB with active subscriptions can download version 5.0 to have access to these features at no cost.

Switchvox 5.0 is based on Asterisk, the world’s most widely adopted open source communications engine, and brings a new level of features and customization to IT administrators, users and resellers. Additionally, version 5.0 includes more application programming interfaces (APIs) for greater customization and integration with third-party business applications, giving businesses the ability to leverage their other IT investments, such as CRM, customer support, accounting and ERP systems. Switchvox 5.0 also features an enhanced user interface, more detailed reporting for calls and call queues, and detailed online support. With all of these features included in each Switchvox SMB unified communications system, customers can realize an average cost savings of 60-80% over comparable VoIP business phone systems.  Read More.

“Mobile and remote workers need to be just as productive outside the office as they are inside, seamlessly moving between the two,” said Tristan Barnum, product line director for Switchvox at Digium. “Combined with a refreshed user interface that makes management simpler and faster, Switchvox also has a more powerful FMC solution, unlike any on the market. With other UC offerings, this functionality is treated as an add-on, requiring expensive licensing, special hardware and hours of training. With Switchvox, all features are included. Additionally, we’ve created more APIs that allow you the flexibility you need to integrate with the software you already use to drive your business.”

Craig Anderson, project manager at PC-PLUS Technologies, a certified Switchvox reseller, said: “I’m looking forward to the fixed mobile convergence capabilities of Switchvox 5.0. Having the ability to consistently direct voicemail and seamlessly switch between phones is going to appeal to our customers. In addition, the ability to apply rules to groups of users, rather than have to establish rules for each individual user, will significantly strengthen my ability to deploy multi-site systems, which make up the majority of my VoIP customers.”

The key Switchvox 5.0 UC features include:

• Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) – Built-in integration for six phones, allowing for seamless transfers and recording from any phone. Find out more:  Click Here
• Detailed Call Queue Reports and Logs – Granular call queue data for multiple queues and queue members.
• Additional Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) – Organizations can create custom integrations with third-party business applications for communications-enabled business processes (CEBP). See a complete list: http://www.digium.com/switchvox/api.
• Switchvox Graphical User Interface (GUI) – A newly refreshed Switchvox GUI simplifies the configuration for groups of users for administrators and users. See these and more features: http://www.digium.com/switchvox-features.

“We are excited about many aspects of Switchvox 5.0, from its new graphical user interface—a significant and pleasant redesign that users will embrace—to the improved call queue reporting and ability to make group changes to users on the system,” said Jonathan Rusk, president of Chromis Technology, a telecommunications networking consultant and vendor. “We believe that the updated GUI and fixed mobile convergence will bring additional sales opportunities and increase our competitive edge.”

Pricing and Availability

Current Switchvox SMB customers can access Switchvox 5.0 directly through their unit today at no additional charge. For new Switchvox SMB customers, pricing starts at $3,195 for up to 30 users. To find out how to buy Switchvox, visit: www.teledynamic.com

About Digium

Digium®, Inc., the Asterisk® Company, created, owns and is the innovative force behind Asterisk, the most widely used open source telephony software. Since its founding in 1999, Digium has become the open source alternative to proprietary communication providers, with offerings that cost as much as 80 percent less. Digium offers Asterisk software free to the open source community and offers Switchvox IP PBX software to power a broad family of products for small, medium and large businesses. The company’s product line includes a wide range of hardware and software to enable resellers and customers to implement turnkey VoIP systems or to design their own custom telephony solutions. More information is available at http://www.digium.com.

About Teledynamic

Teledynamic Communications Inc, is a leading telecommunications provider in Northern California, founded in 1979.  Teledynamic Communications installs and supports VOIP, SIP, open source and  hosted phone systems and IP trunking for businesses.  Teledynamic Communications is a Digium Select Dealer and its President, Randy Kremlaceck serves on the Switchvox Dealer Council.  More information is available at www.teledynamic.com

In the past year, we've noticed a much greater acceptance of the hosted pbx concept.  While it was once a solution that only appealed to a narrow set of adventure-seeking early adopters, hosted PBX has now entered the mainstream.  There are many factors attributable to that evolution, among them faster and high quality internet circuits, more competitive pricing and better QoS (quality of service) engineering.   However, nearly all hosted providers have a business model that will hold them back from greater market penetration - an inability to provide local support and service.  The typical hosted pbx provider has a call center filled with eager young salespeople happily selling away to prospects who could be located anywhere in the U.S. (and beyond).   Upon the sale, the phones are shipped and the installation completed by the customer with distant support from the hosted provider.  Oh boy!

Implementing a successful hosted pbx solution requires a good quality LAN, a router that supports voice and some type of device that will establish quality of service.  As one can imagine with the "ship and pray" methodology, frequently the end result is less than satisfactory as the vendor does not actually assess or optimize the customer's network for voice.  At the point where quality problems arise, the hosted provider attempts to convince the customer that they need to upgrade their network or bring in an outside IT consultant.   Some customers will go that extra mile while others feel that they were sold a defective product. In the latter case, the customer simply ships the product back to the provider and reverts back to their old telecommunications system.   And that's what gives hosted a bad name in the industry.

Teledynamic's approach to the hosted PBX is a model based upon engaging with the customer on premise, pre-sale, for the implementation and for ongoing support.   We provide the same consulting and turnkey implementation as we do with our premise-based PBX customers.   At the risk of boasting, this gives us a huge quality advantage over our nationwide competitor's offerings.   To read more about the advantages of choosing a local provider for your hosted solution you can learn more by reading:  http://teledynamic.com/_uploads/TeledynamicHostedAdvantage.pdf
 

As the IP telecommunications landscape evolves, it is my opinon that we'll see the hosted PBX become a more relevant and safe choice for business customers.  The technology is mature, the internet bandwidth affordable and  buyers more accepting.  However the secret sauce of success is the on-premise service that you get from a local provider.

Randy

Randy Kremlacek is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted PBX’s, SIP trunking and Unified Communications.

http://www.nojitter.com/blog/229500111

Randy

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted PBX’s, SIP trunking and Unified Communications.

Lately, XO Communications has been in the news, also on the rumor of a buyout, by their major stockholder, Carl Icahn.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted PBX’s, SIP trunking and Unified Communications.

On one side the traditional TDM PBX stalwarts, Avaya, Nortel, Mitel and NEC were “adapting” their platforms to support IP trunking and stations, trying to convince the world that evolution was safe and good. On the other side of the fence, Cisco, Shoretel and 3Com were doing well by articulating their “pure” IP pbx technology, throwing out the old.

It’s my belief that the day the music stopped for TDM was January 14, 2009. It was this day that Nortel entered into bankruptcy proceedings. This former market leader went from number one to a business casualty in a few short years. There is not much doubt that the rapidity of the descent was caused by the turtle-like response to the changing technologies and needs of the marketplace over the past few years. While Nortel is the poster child for the decline in the traditional pbx manufacturer, they will certainly not be alone in the dust heap of pbx manufacturer history.

Soon, most business telephone systems will be an application residing on the data network. This is truly revolutionary in nature. As much as Cisco, Shoretel and 3Com moved the technology from TDM to IP, the resultant products more or less did what their technology predecessors did – make and receive phone calls and store voice messages. These systems still rely on proprietary hardware, software and a farm of servers. In Cisco’s case, it might even be called a ranch. Not very green, quite closed and by architecture, expensive to maintain.

Now, a much more significant change in the pbx world is occurring. Using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware combined with standards-based software, the phone system can now be open and based upon best-of-breed technology. Remember when that happened to data? The personal computer was the start of the technology revolution as it was standards-based and open

Our company, Teledynamic, saw the writing on the wall and has moved quickly to gain the necessary product lines and technical skills to adapt to this new model. And along the way, our sales and support model will change in a very substantial way too. Customers will now be free to pick and choose components and applications as they do in the data world. There is no standard data network – ironically due to the fact that there are standards. Since everything works with everything else (more or less <BG>), every data network is custom-designed for a specific customer’s needs. So it will be with the PBX.

So our role becomes one of integrator and consultant, rather than product representative and equipment repair company. As part and parcel of the data network, the ability to integrate with data and mobile applications will provide heady technical challenges. This new-found freedom will certainly provide wonderful new communications tools to our customers, but will result in a much more challenging implementation and support environment.

And it is with that extraordinarily long introduction, I’m happy to announce that Teledynamic has fully embraced this new model. We recently introduced the Digium Switchvox and Interactive Intelligence products that will help us help our customers in this new world. I welcome you to visit our website at www.teledynamic.com to learn more.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.

I just don't see how a potential customer is going to find us or find our value.  If we offered a fashion good or something trendy, I see how the social angle would work well.

I just don't know about the idea of someone writing their daily inane comment in Facebook and then searching for the "leading SIP PBX provider in the San Francisco Bay Area".

But I'd love to be proven wrong.

Let me know your thoughts.

Randy Kremlacek

Randy is the President of Teledynamic Communications. The company specializes in premise-based and hosted SIP PBX’s, pbx monitoring and Unified Communications.