The SA PBX Landscape

[NightShift]

I've browsed these forums for a while and typically see strong support for Asterisk based systems and alot of motivation for why you should get yourself one of these platforms. What I'm wondering though is if Asterisk is typically a small business system (im sure many larger corporates would use it for straight-forward telephony purposes), and also how it weighs up against the likes of say, Avaya and Cisco telephony systems (even the small business ones) when it comes to features like Contact Center functionality, voicemail and so on. The general impression I get it is that the bigger the company, the further away they are from open source. There is also the argument of upfront outlay (cheaper for open source) versus ongoing maintenance and support (more in the long run?) Im not trying to incite debate, just get some perspectives as I only have one side of the story so far, and I know that there are at least 3 sides

 

[s0lar]

*Gasp* I cant believe this mentality is around? Reminds me of Linux in the mid-90's.

One trend I have found and I honestly wish I could the name companies involved, but due to NDAs/decency etc. I wont venture down that road. The vast amount of consultation I have been involved in are huge listed or NGOs with a broad average head count of +-50K nationally and more abroad. For example one of these companies had a monthly retainer of R17m purely for their call-center that is before a technician even walks through the door. Yes these guys are prepared to do custom development (read upfront outlay) but the SOLE reason is to lower long term TCO over the proprietary counterparts. i.e. Corporates understand ROI.

In short its up to business to truly understand the platform and tailor the system to the market be it a SME or listed corporate. i.e.. open-source flexibility.

 

[NightShift]

well for me your experience is useful insight. I have personally managed the delivery of proprietry telephony systems for some of the most recognised names in the world. However in that capacity I only ever delivered proprietry solutions (that extended beyond PBX's). It is clear to see the adoption of open standards like SIP - but by and large, the companies that I delivered for were mulit-nationals and all they wanted was proprietry kit. The manufacturers of that kit could offer extensive support for said companies through their global partnering schemes - this is very appealing on that level and I dont know if the same sort of thing exists in the open source market - i literrally know nothing about it. I dont have any current figures but as of mid-2009 proprietry is 82% of the global PBX market. 18% open source is huge leaps forward though.

 

[s0lar]

I dont have any current figures but as of mid-2009 proprietry is 82% of the global PBX market. 18% open source is huge leaps forward though.

Nortel the largest manufacturer of conventional business telephone systems, lagged Open Source by 8%, having sold 2.63 million lines,” a study by Easter Management of PBX market share concluded in January of this year. (last year)

Not bad for a product that is less then 8 years old, taken into consideration Nortel was a off shoot of Bell Labs established in 1880's. That makes it a +-120 year old company with a huge amount of IP. That said the predictive trends and not current trends are what business is built on.

Since the above study we are both quoting there is a "new" drive toward the cloud, historically OSS has out shone proprietary solutions here time and again.

The manufacturers of that kit could offer extensive support for said companies through their global partnering schemes - this is very appealing on that level and I dont know if the same sort of thing exists in the open source market - i literrally know nothing about it

Now days Corporates, basically the only ones who can afford the likes of the top of the line Avaya's and Nortels of the world. Have had a huge paradigm shift and realized their telephony is part of there IT. Much the same as their in house software development team. That said support out shines outsourced in terms of turnaround, flexibility as well as costing.

The dinosaurs realize this and are trying there level best to introduce this into the market to remain competitive. For example Avaya's SIP enablement server, or their TAPI "application" server come to mind.

These are my opinions from closely watching the market, being a favourite geeky past time to predict future technologies and trends. I hope I have made a small point. I remember having this exact type of forum with regard to NEVER seeing Linux in the Enterprise space due to exactly what you have mentioned. Yet it holds the biggest share in mission critical datacentre's of insurance companies and banks 10 years down the line.

 

[NightShift]

Well we all know what happened to Nortel. I'm familiar with the Avaya AES and SES servers - I always like to keep an eye on Avaya and see what direction they take relative to the global market. Their 'focus' on the SME market has delivered some interesting and relatively inexpensive solutions like the One-X platform. Nightmare of a company to deal with directly though. I had the opportunity to deliver complete solutions for retail outlets that were costing, say, R25,000 including installation - this was in England so it could probably be delivered for less than that here in SA. So I guess the other part of what i was getting at is if the requirements are straightforward - IPT, some pickup groups, huntgroups, call restrictions yadda yadda - whats the upshot for open source in that ring? Where the requirements in the long term are well defined - where is the edge? Other than some extra bucks on a cheaper price Do SME-specific proprietry products start to find a place in the SME market due to factors such as brand and improved price. Its possible I think...to see a bit of 'traditional' role reversal where open source continually makes a greater impact in bigger business, while proprietry starts heading back into the SME space. At least that might seem to be one possibility from our discussion anyway. But its getting late.

 

[WireFree]

Hi Markd,

In my opinion, an SME does not care if the product is proprietary or open-source (in some cases). The main consideration points are:
1. Price
2. Reliability
3. After Sales Support.

Consequently, it comes down to the company providing the product and how well they can address the needs of customer with regards to the above 3 points. I have seen cases where open-source solutions have been priced similarly to proprietary systems, and cases where open-source systems have failed because of bad after sales service. However on the other side of the coin, open-source systems are also gaining ground in the enterprise and carrier markets.

Cheers,
WireFree