Sangoma Explains Launch of B600 Line of Analog Voice Cards

Sangoma recently unveiled a new line of analog voice cards dubbed B600 and I was curious how the company sees these cards helping the industry. As you may know, Sangoma is a well-known quality Asterisk-compatible board maker. More recently the company has expanded into the UC space.

To learn more about this line of cards and what Sangoma sees in its future, I interviewed company VP Sales and Marketing Doug Vilim via email and this is the result.

Some of our OEM customers;  those who are building IP PBX appliances Empowered by Sangoma, often do not require the modularity, port customization and single slot expandability that our A-Series analog cards provide.  Also, four PSTN lines and one fax connection is a common configuration that creates economies of scale, which can lead to a substantial cost savings for these customers when purchasing in larger volumes.

Solution partners and integrators who cater to small businesses can also benefit from this line, as it is a great starting point for their end customers to become familiar with Sangoma quality and ease of use, while not investing in expansion capabilities they do not yet need.  And the B-Series hardware still comes with Sangoma's Wanpipe® High End System Diagnostics, Drivers and Utilities, so there is no difference there.

In early 2008 we saw subtle shifts coming from our large OEM customers. These customers were grappling with going to smaller custom designed embedded appliances that would lock them into a design or a lower cost of analog hardware that they could count on for longevity.

Coincidently, with the current economic conditions now is also a time when all customers are really starting to look carefully at their expenditures. Customers need a phone system they can trust at a price point they can afford. While Sangoma's hardware has always been affordable compared to other "big iron"  significantly over featured card vendors,  this card makes use of economies of scale not yet seen in our product line to date. This gives our integrator and OEM partners a competitive advantage on the end product.

I want to make it very clear, that B-Series cards are still premium quality piece of telephony equipment designed with the meticulous engineering standards that all Sangoma cards must adhere to.

OEMs, Integrators and Resellers serving smaller businesses with limited budgets, or those end-customers who are just testing the waters with VoIP phone systems, and who need the stability of traditional land line access and integrated fax support.

How long have you seen demand in this space you are addressing?

In early 2008 three of our large OEM industry leading customers, who are now entrenched in the IP PBX market, came to us with their roadmaps. Almost all of their roadmaps included cost reductions, and did not require modularity. Furthermore, two of the three wanted a solution which incorporated  fax support --- FXS. After some late night/early morning brainstorming sessions in mid summer we decided the hardware industry was getting a little too comfortable with itself and needed something just a little different.  There is one more feature coming in the B600 series, which we will announce in January. This will be another first and it will further empower our customers with feature-rich support at affordable pricing.

Sangoma is committed to engineering products that reach different market segments. As previously mentioned, look for a new spin on the B600 Series Cards in early in the new year.  We are overwhelmed with the interest NetBorder Express SIP to TDM Gateway Cards have received from all over the world. Currently NetBorder supports T1/E1/PRI. Look for analog and BRI support in the coming months. NetBorder is evolving into a robust full feature soft gateway solution. What's most compelling about the NetBorder Express line is it has a SIP interface. NetBorder Express's SIP interface moves Sangoma into significantly larger and new markets, which two years ago we would not have imagined. You will also see some call center software building blocks in the coming months.