The PBX Squeeze and How You'll Benefit

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The PBX Squeeze and How You'll Benefit

The following diagram is borrowed from the substantial cranial database of TMC partner in WebRTC Expo and UC University, Phil Edholm who was a major tech driver at Nortel and Avaya for decades. It was modified a bit by me.
pbx-pressure.png

The state of the PBX market can be summed up by this chart showing existing vendors getting squeezed between Microsoft coming from the OS down, Cisco coming from the router out and cloud and open-source coming from the bottom up in terms of pricing. In short, it is a tough time to be a PBX vendor. This doesn’t mean that these companies can’t adapt – many are… ShoreTel is now a cloud provider for example.

In about six weeks, one of the largest US-based tech and communications trade shows ITEXPO will take place attracting an audience from around the globe. At this event, attendees will see everything of interest in communications and technology and one of the areas of tremendous growth which has generated lots of interest is FreePBX World from Schmooze taking place Aug 11-14th in Las Vegas.

This event had tremendous interest last year in Vegas and we expect it to get bigger.

Why? As the diagram above shows, open-source is putting pressure on PBX sales from below – at a time when companies have tighter budgets. Linux familiarity is only growing and success stories using this OS are everywhere.

Moreover, a system like FreePBX has taken an open source-platform based on Asterisk and turned it into a UC or unified communications solution. It also runs across endpoints ranging from hardware-based phones to mobile and even WebRTC-based clients.

But enough about the product – you can check the website for more. The conference of course is a great place to come learn about what the FreePBX ecosystem is capable of – and can do for your company. Moreover, be sure to come to be part of this exciting new ecosystem perfect for developers and resellers.

The event touches on some of the most important topics in the industry right now such as high-availability phone systems, software integration in small and large companies, localization for global customers, certification, hosting (cloud) pitfalls and more.

The speakers will be top notch and include Mark Spencer from Digium as well as Philippe Lindheimer of Schmooze. Mark as you know really popularized the open-source PBX movement about a decade ago. We have come so far, so fast.

Here is the bottom line… There is major disruption happening in the PBX market… This means new opportunities for customers to take advantage of things they likely didn’t have access to if their last PBX purchase was close to a decade ago or more. For example, open APIs, cloud-based access, SIP integration, WebRTC, mobile apps, HD voice, etc.

Open-source may or may not be for you but it is a smart thing to look at very seriously and there is one global event where you can see FreePBX in action. It's worth mentioning that quite often the solutions you buy from traditional telecom and tech vendors are open-source behind the scenes anyway. Amazing, huh? I am really looking forward to this event – it is great to see this thriving ecosystem continue to grow and evolve, integrating WebRTC and more. Hope to see you there.