As the year comes to an end, the open source world of IP Telephony is booming and making a move on traditional suppliers. Open source Asterisk is not alone in this mission. As we move into 2008, you will see other new players in telephony. What will we experience a year from now? Will people be running their mission critical phone systems on Microsoft or open source Asterisk from Digium or some other Asterisk-based distribution? Will it be Google? Yahoo? Will they continue to select traditional solutions from traditional telephony players? Can consumer VoIP move into the higher demands of business?
Welcome to the 2008 emerging market changes and battlefield. Is your phone system like your search engine? Is it like your home page? What drives your decisions, price - features - simplicity - brand? Do you even care?
Think about it - Who would have predicted YouTube? Facebook? Myspace? IM? Texting? Twitter? Get with it - the business telephony world is changing. It's going to take longer than a consumer movement, but it is in the process of happening. Over the year we will discuss this more.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
YCMTSU
One of my favorite sayings. At Digium this week is our NYU guest following a trip to NYU by Mark Spencer and some of the key developers. Soon, you will see a new element of Asterisk you have not seen ever before. The developers are actually using the new Digium building as a backdrop.
Trust me, this falls into the category of "You Can't Make This Stuff Up!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Fun Days at Digium.
Oh, and I caught Mark in his hammock in his office today! He had to move while Jeffrey installed a new shelf to house all his junk. Mark just has so much fun!!!!!!!!
Trust me, this falls into the category of "You Can't Make This Stuff Up!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Fun Days at Digium.
Oh, and I caught Mark in his hammock in his office today! He had to move while Jeffrey installed a new shelf to house all his junk. Mark just has so much fun!!!!!!!!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving
This is a terrific opportunity to reflect over the past for all of us. As I review the past two years, I think about how I came to Digium. Internal debates at 3Com about Asterisk, open source, 3Com's voice products (NBX, VCX, and their own SIP phones) and how we might be better positioned in the future. A team of three people in the convergence business unit did some heavy lifting and voila - "hell day" presentation on 3Com and how Asterisk might be well suited for the future voice business. Then new management changes at 3Com led to my leaving along with some other key folks and in a matter of weeks meeting Mark Spencer, David Skok (the Matrix Partners investor), the rest of Digium's small team, and the rest as they say is history. Today, I give thanks for the sequence of events that brought me here.
I am challenged daily by the balance of open source vs. commercial business. A growing company, a young founder and his friends, a more traditional planning process and budgeting process, and a continued balance of "free" vs. "commercial" across products. This makes the career move here much more interesting!
Check out our free small business Switchvox at www.switchvox.com or www.digium.com; check our free Asterisk - pure code for geeks at www.asterisk.org and for the slightly less technically inclined, a distribution at www.asterisknow.org (release 1.0 replacing beta 6 very soon).
Here is the type of thing we work with daily: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ozEo3FOKCS8)
if that link fails, try this: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=mark+spencer+jeep&search=Search
You tell me how you balance this with traditional strategic and operations planning as well as integration of two acquisitions. Yes, this is quite a period of life that I give thanks for today.
Moving to one last thing I'd like to mention that crosses my mind every Thanksgiving: High School Football. I will watch Pro football today as substitute for my younger days when I attended Needham High School in MA. The rivalry with Wellesley (yes, same town that Hillary attended college) has a history - the oldest in the nation for public schools. In checking out www.boston.com I found this today which made me smile. Check this out: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/22/holiday_spirit/
Reading this reminded me of the spirited rallys and pranks the week before this football game back in the 60's. I think my class was ahead of its time. Anyway, I give thanks today for many things but in this blog today wanted to share Digium and Needham stories. I am sure you have yours!
Happy Thanksgiving to all and enjoy your day!
I am challenged daily by the balance of open source vs. commercial business. A growing company, a young founder and his friends, a more traditional planning process and budgeting process, and a continued balance of "free" vs. "commercial" across products. This makes the career move here much more interesting!
Check out our free small business Switchvox at www.switchvox.com or www.digium.com; check our free Asterisk - pure code for geeks at www.asterisk.org and for the slightly less technically inclined, a distribution at www.asterisknow.org (release 1.0 replacing beta 6 very soon).
Here is the type of thing we work with daily: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ozEo3FOKCS8)
if that link fails, try this: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=mark+spencer+jeep&search=Search
You tell me how you balance this with traditional strategic and operations planning as well as integration of two acquisitions. Yes, this is quite a period of life that I give thanks for today.
Moving to one last thing I'd like to mention that crosses my mind every Thanksgiving: High School Football. I will watch Pro football today as substitute for my younger days when I attended Needham High School in MA. The rivalry with Wellesley (yes, same town that Hillary attended college) has a history - the oldest in the nation for public schools. In checking out www.boston.com I found this today which made me smile. Check this out: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/22/holiday_spirit/
Reading this reminded me of the spirited rallys and pranks the week before this football game back in the 60's. I think my class was ahead of its time. Anyway, I give thanks today for many things but in this blog today wanted to share Digium and Needham stories. I am sure you have yours!
Happy Thanksgiving to all and enjoy your day!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
BAD Asterisk FUD
I had the benefit of getting some market feedback today re: Shoretel spreading FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) about some competitors but also Asterisk. In spite of their recent successes, it shows how ignorant some of their sales folks can be and obviously do not research Digium or Asterisk. We all do what we can to delay competitive threats in an account, but some do it with class some do it with FUD. Here is where they are so far off, it shows they are not concerned about open source Asterisk. Now we know they are targeting the big boys and that's good they are taking their eyes off the ball!
Shoretel: Asterisk Appliance.......
........."thousands of other small partners with little investment are trying to undercut you"
Response: Good for end users; low cost and as resellers package complete systems and services they will win the deal and make good margins and the customer will spend far less for the solution! Competition is good for buyers!
Shoretel: Asterisk Upgrades
.........."How does a customer who is sold an asterisk system upgrade if they want to grow?"
Response: Asterisk is SIP but also supports TDM-SIP and IAX (Inter Asterisk Exchange) allowing the customer to keep their phones and can easily connect to other SIP locations. How many Pizza places, Dentists, bagel shops, bakeries, real estate agencies etc need less than 50 phones? Simple upgrades - it's free for open source and the recent Switchvox Free Edition which can easily be upgraded with a SINGLE CLICK!
Shoretel: What happens if IBM, HP or Dell decide to sell asterisk (good for their servers and support business)What happens to your partners when IBM competes for the deals? Who knows, maybe we will see sooner rather than later?
Response: Shoretel might be afraid of competition, but the end user welcomes it as part of a healthy marketplace.
Shoretel: How baked is the solution? Open Source is still evolving How many features do you get?
Response: Asterisk comes from Digium, the world leader and inventor of Asterisk, and the benevolent owner of the Asterisk project (open source software are called projects). There are thousands of daily downloads of Asterisk software. Thousands of community members write, test and fix features daily. Imagine Shoretel identifying all the bugs found globally? Right. But open source users have eyes into every bug and every fix. However, the features are rich and continue to get richer. Asterisk is also the most interoperable IP PBX on the planet since it's the most ubiquitious.
Don't believe it? try it:
IP PBX: www.digium.com or www.switchvox.com (no technical knowledge needed)
Asterisk IP Telephony Platform: www.asterisknow.org (little technical knowledge) or www.asterisk.org (highly technical knowledge required)
Shoretel: Asterisk Appliance.......
........."thousands of other small partners with little investment are trying to undercut you"
Response: Good for end users; low cost and as resellers package complete systems and services they will win the deal and make good margins and the customer will spend far less for the solution! Competition is good for buyers!
Shoretel: Asterisk Upgrades
.........."How does a customer who is sold an asterisk system upgrade if they want to grow?"
Response: Asterisk is SIP but also supports TDM-SIP and IAX (Inter Asterisk Exchange) allowing the customer to keep their phones and can easily connect to other SIP locations. How many Pizza places, Dentists, bagel shops, bakeries, real estate agencies etc need less than 50 phones? Simple upgrades - it's free for open source and the recent Switchvox Free Edition which can easily be upgraded with a SINGLE CLICK!
Shoretel: What happens if IBM, HP or Dell decide to sell asterisk (good for their servers and support business)What happens to your partners when IBM competes for the deals? Who knows, maybe we will see sooner rather than later?
Response: Shoretel might be afraid of competition, but the end user welcomes it as part of a healthy marketplace.
Shoretel: How baked is the solution? Open Source is still evolving How many features do you get?
Response: Asterisk comes from Digium, the world leader and inventor of Asterisk, and the benevolent owner of the Asterisk project (open source software are called projects). There are thousands of daily downloads of Asterisk software. Thousands of community members write, test and fix features daily. Imagine Shoretel identifying all the bugs found globally? Right. But open source users have eyes into every bug and every fix. However, the features are rich and continue to get richer. Asterisk is also the most interoperable IP PBX on the planet since it's the most ubiquitious.
Don't believe it? try it:
IP PBX: www.digium.com or www.switchvox.com (no technical knowledge needed)
Asterisk IP Telephony Platform: www.asterisknow.org (little technical knowledge) or www.asterisk.org (highly technical knowledge required)
Monday, November 5, 2007
Digium Asterisk World
Its been a while since I posted here. I've been busy on Digium's corporate blog. http://blogs.digium.com. Today, Malcolm responded to a TMC blog about Sangoma vs. Digium. Sangoma also hired our old PR firm. That is telling. We terminated them because they could no longer "cut it" with Digium but our board level competitors felt they could help them. Good for both.
So last week was Digium Asterisk World (DAW) at VON. It was incredibly successful! There were minor issues with content in the conference track, but we will fix that for Spring DAW in San Jose in March 2008. Partners and exhibitors seemed happy they took a booth there as traffic was best in years!
I was invited to join the VON Advisory Council which is a diverse group of people who all are trying to reinvent Pulver's VON for the masses and IP Communications! Stay tuned for more.
Digium is planning on some new campaigns for 2008. With Switchvox, 3Com as a partner, and NTT as a partner watch for some exciting new programs! We have some aggressive plans to proliferate open source Asterisk telephony in the mainstream. Follow www.digium.com and you will stay abreast of our efforts. Tell us how you like the new web site.
..the undisputable LEADER in Open Source Telephony....Digium, The Asterisk Company
So last week was Digium Asterisk World (DAW) at VON. It was incredibly successful! There were minor issues with content in the conference track, but we will fix that for Spring DAW in San Jose in March 2008. Partners and exhibitors seemed happy they took a booth there as traffic was best in years!
I was invited to join the VON Advisory Council which is a diverse group of people who all are trying to reinvent Pulver's VON for the masses and IP Communications! Stay tuned for more.
Digium is planning on some new campaigns for 2008. With Switchvox, 3Com as a partner, and NTT as a partner watch for some exciting new programs! We have some aggressive plans to proliferate open source Asterisk telephony in the mainstream. Follow www.digium.com and you will stay abreast of our efforts. Tell us how you like the new web site.
..the undisputable LEADER in Open Source Telephony....Digium, The Asterisk Company
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
The Big Move
Today was moving day at Digium. It seems like a century ago that I joined Digium (June 2006) and one of the first things I did was provide input to the new building layout. I stayed out of it mostly after that unless asked. The culmination of this was today, as all Digium Huntsville-based employees moved back into the same building. We had a major customer meeting 11 am to 4 PM, and people were walking by our meeting room with sombreros, desktop Asterisk toys, laptops and printers and boxes of stuff. It's funny how some people enjoy this moving thing, others hate it. It was fun to watch and after our meeting move myself.
Our CEO took our guest to the new building before he went back to the airport, and no doubt the prospect was blown away. Our building was designed for collaboration purposes. There are several open areas with teamwork in mind. Some departments insisted on cubes to collaborate while others have new sizable private offices after having a smaller shared space. The shiny new training center beckons students and computers and people were milling everywhere moving their personal goods ahead of the "boxes" from the other buildings.
All goods are now delivered, the network should have all ports assigned properly, and workers are fixing last minute things - elevators, coffee areas, copiers, printers, and other common areas. Yes, last minute things are in process today, but moving along nicely. Love the POE switches on our Polycom phones - less cable clutter!
Mark was setting up Markocam and his office (more on Digium corporate blog soon - http://blogs.digium.com/). The building is terrific - large areas for all, lots of room for now as we grow, conference rooms that we no longer need to fight for and all named after penguins!
There is no time for hallway and water cooler time waste, with Digium's recent Switchvox and 3Com news and Digium Asterisk World approaching, so we will be getting back to business fast. There is no doubt about Digium's commitment to collaboration in Asterisk, among employees and within the building. if you get to visit, you will see what I mean.
We are all proud of the new facility. We are proud to be part of Digium. We hope you can get to visit in the future.
Our CEO took our guest to the new building before he went back to the airport, and no doubt the prospect was blown away. Our building was designed for collaboration purposes. There are several open areas with teamwork in mind. Some departments insisted on cubes to collaborate while others have new sizable private offices after having a smaller shared space. The shiny new training center beckons students and computers and people were milling everywhere moving their personal goods ahead of the "boxes" from the other buildings.
All goods are now delivered, the network should have all ports assigned properly, and workers are fixing last minute things - elevators, coffee areas, copiers, printers, and other common areas. Yes, last minute things are in process today, but moving along nicely. Love the POE switches on our Polycom phones - less cable clutter!
Mark was setting up Markocam and his office (more on Digium corporate blog soon - http://blogs.digium.com/). The building is terrific - large areas for all, lots of room for now as we grow, conference rooms that we no longer need to fight for and all named after penguins!
There is no time for hallway and water cooler time waste, with Digium's recent Switchvox and 3Com news and Digium Asterisk World approaching, so we will be getting back to business fast. There is no doubt about Digium's commitment to collaboration in Asterisk, among employees and within the building. if you get to visit, you will see what I mean.
We are all proud of the new facility. We are proud to be part of Digium. We hope you can get to visit in the future.
Friday, September 14, 2007
How to Prep for Astricon, the Asterisk Users Conference
With the recent acquisition of Sokol and Associates, Digium employees now more than just attend and sponsor Astricon, the premier event for the "converted" - those already drinking from the Asterisk firehose of the world's most popular open source IP Telephony Software, Digium is the proud operator of this event! With less than one week to go, we are approaching the first Digium-operated version of the event on the heels of 5 other Sokol run events.
So what does it mean? It means boxes are everywhere. With all the giveaways, from a white paper on echo cancellation to lots of Asterisk Swag, it's all over the marketing area, the storage areas, and in a couple of the marketing offices! All the lucky attendees at Astricon, being held this year in Phoenix, will receive lots of Asterisk related stuff. It will be both fun, educational, and productive with software licenses being given to those who visit us for G.729 and HPEC. Visit http://www.astricon.net.
What else do we do to prepare? Clear our schedules in Huntsville for the week of August 24-28! Make sure our office areas are packed! We are moving as soon as we return into our new building (See earlier post). We will all be back together as Engineering and Product Quality have been in another building since January.
With major announcements looming, marketing is again at work. Prep the analysts, prep and embargo the press. Make sure all the questions are answered. Prepare Mark Spencer for his closing day keynote on "Asterisk Adventures" - typically the most lively and attended event of the week. Always an adventure!
More details..... is the hotel all set? ..........Speakers still committed? Any changes? ................How will the competitors handle Digium as the event owner? Is the party all ready? ..........Welcome to Digium Marketing's world. We love it!
Visit Digium's new corporate blog at http://blogs.digium.com/.
See you at Astricon!
So what does it mean? It means boxes are everywhere. With all the giveaways, from a white paper on echo cancellation to lots of Asterisk Swag, it's all over the marketing area, the storage areas, and in a couple of the marketing offices! All the lucky attendees at Astricon, being held this year in Phoenix, will receive lots of Asterisk related stuff. It will be both fun, educational, and productive with software licenses being given to those who visit us for G.729 and HPEC. Visit http://www.astricon.net.
What else do we do to prepare? Clear our schedules in Huntsville for the week of August 24-28! Make sure our office areas are packed! We are moving as soon as we return into our new building (See earlier post). We will all be back together as Engineering and Product Quality have been in another building since January.
With major announcements looming, marketing is again at work. Prep the analysts, prep and embargo the press. Make sure all the questions are answered. Prepare Mark Spencer for his closing day keynote on "Asterisk Adventures" - typically the most lively and attended event of the week. Always an adventure!
More details..... is the hotel all set? ..........Speakers still committed? Any changes? ................How will the competitors handle Digium as the event owner? Is the party all ready? ..........Welcome to Digium Marketing's world. We love it!
Visit Digium's new corporate blog at http://blogs.digium.com/.
See you at Astricon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)