2007-09-27 - Digium Targets Commercial Sales With Switchvox
Question: Is there any such thing as a mature disrupter? Digium Inc., creator of the Asterisk open-source IP PBX (Private Branch eXchange) platform, seems to be trying to become one. It's making a serious attempt to expand Asterisk into the mass market for small-business IP telephony systems. But while open-source software is one of the more disruptive forces around, Digium is trying to expand its use by acting mature, almost like a conventional PBX vendor.For proof, look to today's announcement that Digium has acquired Switchvox, a leading supplier of commercial Asterisk IP PBXs. Switchvox packages Asterisk to make it easy for nontechies to use. It eliminates the necessity to edit configuration files to make changes, for example. "That's a relatively complicated skill," noted Digium CEO Danny Windham. Instead, it provides an intuitive user interface to both administrators and users. Such features and user-friendliness are crucial if Asterisk is to become a broad commercial success, rather than just a component from which tech-savvy but typically small-scale resellers build small-business phone systems.
The move has been some time in the making. "Digium started a project six months ago on how to bring Asterisk to the mass market," said Windham. "We went through an evaluation of all the possible products and selected Switchvox because we believe they have the best product on the market. We believe it is the most popular packaged version, it has been converted to be easy to use, and it is particularly suited to small- and medium-sized businesses."
Digium also liked Switchvox because it incorporates other capabilities. "They’ve also extended the functionality, so it's very much a Web 2.0 architecture," explained Windham. "There's direct integration with CRM tools and with Google Maps, for example."
The Switchvox interface also displays users' presence information. That will be increasingly important as even small companies employ more and more methods of communicating, from voice to messaging to various mobile services. The certainty that these companies will increasingly do so, and thus will need ways to manage and unify all those methods, was yet another selling point, according to Windham. "Switchvox has done a fair amount toward building a product that lets you unify all your communications," he said.
The acquisition represents a natural evolution for Digium, according to Frost & Sullivan analyst James Brehm. The company had already moved from selling components like line cards to support Asterisk-based IP PBXs to selling turnkey appliances loaded with the software. Digium announced a low-end appliance a year ago and a larger one in June. With the Switchvox acquisition, Digium becomes for the first time a full-fledged commercial IP PBX vendor.
The move is certain to heighten Digium's rivalry with Fonality, which also sells commercial Asterisk IP PBXs, as well as appliances for those who want to build their own. That doesn't mean that the two companies will necessarily be competing head to head. "I think there are enough customers for everyone to go around with this type of a product offering," said Brehm. "I believe the real impact is that it proves the market is maturing and growing up, and it lends some legitimacy to the open-source approach."
Just as long as prices don't expand with maturity the way waistlines do.
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