Found this white paper from Sangoma about open source PABX. This white paper gives you some information about:

- Why to migrate from traditional TDM to IP
- The rise of open source telephony
- Key Features Making Open Source Telephony Attractive to Businesses
- How Open Source Telephony is Evolving
- How is Sangoma contributing

Happy reading.

Cheers
Daniel

Hi Colleagues

A couple of months ago Paul Lim recommend a very interesting book to us (MCSB - Management Team): "The Blue Ocean Strategy".
The book is written by W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

From Publishers Weekly:
Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean metaphor elegantly summarizes their vision of the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike "red oceans," which are well explored and crowded with competitors, "blue oceans" represent "untapped market space" and the "opportunity for highly profitable growth." The only reason more big companies don't set sail for them, they suggest, is that "the dominant focus of strategy work over the past twenty-five years has been on competition-based red ocean strategies"-i.e., finding new ways to cut costs and grow revenue by taking away market share from the competition. With this groundbreaking book, Kim and Mauborgne-both professors at France's INSEAD, the second largest business school in the world-aim to repair that bias. Using dozens of examples-from Southwest Airlines and the Cirque du Soleil to Curves and Starbucks-they present the tools and frameworks they've developed specifically for the task of analyzing blue oceans. They urge companies to "value innovation" that focuses on "utility, price, and cost positions," to "create and capture new demand" and to "focus on the big picture, not the numbers." And while their heavyweight analytical tools may be of real use only to serious strategy planners, their overall vision will inspire entrepreneurs of all stripes, and most of their ideas are presented in a direct, jargon-free manner. Theirs is not the typical business management book's vague call to action; it is a precise, actionable plan for changing the way companies do business with one resounding piece of advice: swim for open waters.

MCSB's future strategy must be based on blue-ocean markets, why should we fight with our competitors if we don't have too? Try to think out of the box. How can we differentiate? How can we get "spotted"?

Our phoneCUBE solutions are build arround a blue-ocean strategy.
(we define our market, pricing, SLA etc...).

opsCONTROL the next solution in the pipeline wil also be based on a blue-ocean stratey.

Would be great if you read this book, so we can talk on the same level of understanding.

You can get from a local bookstore or www.amazon.com

Book-Details:

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (February 3, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591396190
ISBN-13: 978-1591396192

Cheers
Daniel

I found some ideas/reasons on why our clients should switch from traditional PBX-Systems to phoneCUBE:

Reason #1: Much easier to install & configure than a proprietary phone system:
phoneCUBE runs as software on a standard server and can leverage the advanced processing power of the computer and user interface. All our engineers proficient in networking and computers can install and maintain a phoneCUBE server. Large open source community.

Reason #2: Easier to manage because of web/GUI based configuration interface:
phoneCUBE can be managed via a web-based configuration interface or a GUI, allowing you to easily maintain and fine tune the phone system. Proprietary phone systems have difficult-to-use interfaces which are often designed to be used only by the phone technicians.

Reason #3: Significant cost savings using VOIP providers:
With an phoneCUBE you can easily use a VOIP service provider for long distance and international calls. The monthly savings are significant. If you have branch offices, you can easily connect phone systems between branches and make free phone calls.

Reason #4 Eliminate phone wiring!
phoenCUBE allows you to connect hardware phones directly to a standard computer network port (which it can share with the adjacent computer). Software phones can be installed directly onto the PC. You can now eliminate the phone wiring and make adding or moving of extensions much easier. In new offices you can completely eliminate the extra ports to be used by the phone!

Reason #5: Eliminate vendor lock in!
phoneCUBE is based on the open SIP and IAX standard. You can now mix and match any SIP hardware or software phone with any SIP-based IP PBX, PSTN Gateway or VOIP provider. In contrast, a proprietary phone system often requires proprietary phones to use advanced features, and proprietary extension modules to add features.

Reason #6: Scalable
Proprietary systems are easy to outgrow: Adding more phone lines or extensions often requires expensive hardware modules. In some cases you need an entirely new phone system. Not so with phoneCUBE: a standard computer can easily handle a large number of phone lines and extensions – just add more phones to your network to expand!

Reason #7: Better customer service & productivity:
With phoneCUBE you can deliver better customer service and better productivity: Since the telephone system is now computer-based you can integrate phone functions with business applications. For example: Bring up the customer record of the caller automatically when you receive his/her call, dramatically improving customer service and cutting cost by reducing time spent on each caller. Outbound calls can be placed directly from Outlook, removing the need for the user to type in the phone number.

Reason #8: Twice the phone system features for a fraction of the price!
phoneCUBE is software-based, itis easier for developers to add and improve feature sets. Most VOIP phone systems come with a rich feature set, including auto attendant, voice mail, ring groups, advanced reporting and more. These options are often very expensive in proprietary systems.

Reason #9 Allow hot desking & roaming
Hot desking – the process of being able to easily move offices/desks based on the task at hand, has become very popular. Unfortunately traditional PBXs require extensions to be re-patched to the new location. With phoneCUBE the user simply takes his phone to his new desk – No patching required!

Users can roam too – if an employee has to work from home, he/she can simply fire up their SIP software phone and are able to answer calls to their extension, just as they would in the office. Calls can be diverted anywhere in the world because of the SIP protocol characteristics!

Reason #10 Better phone usability: SIP phones are easier to use
Employees often struggle using advanced phone features: Setting up a conference, transferring a call – On an old PBX it all requires instruction

Cheers
Daniel

Great book and thanks a thousand times to O'Reilly for releasing the book in this way.

This book is not based on the latest Astrisk 1.4 Version, but it's still my "Asterisk-Bible".

This book is the result of hundreds of hours of painstaking labor, this book represents the work of Jim Van Meggelen, Jared Smith, and Leif Madsen over the past year.

Download: Asterisk-Book (4.5 MB)