What offering? Well, you know about Polycom's IP Phones, even the HD Voice models. SUTUS offers a piece of hardware that is an office-in-a-box, which is more than just an on-premise IP-PBX.
The third party is MegaPath, the merged DLEC of Metifice, DSL.net and Megapath. The company has had a string of announcements since it completed its $11M purchase of DSL.net. "It has achieved Cisco® Powered Managed Service designations for its Managed IP Trunking and MPLS-VPN offerings, " according to a Feb 2 press release."The functionality includes wired and wireless networking, file server, email, VoIP PBX, auto attendant, voice mail, internet router, security and access to managed services. The Business Central 200 is designed to meet the needs of companies with 25 or fewer employees."
MegaPath rolled out a Voice and Data bundle over T1 and SDSL in its network footprint of 340 Central Offices this month. The voice service called DUET comes in 3 flavors:"MegaPath relies on Cisco's high-performance routing equipment to deliver managed services that enable businesses to consolidate all applications onto a single private network.... Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) virtual private network (VPN) service provides private IP networks with high-quality, high-security, and any-to-any connectivity. The service is based on the Cisco IP NGN architecture, MPLS and Cisco Design and Implementation Guides. The service delivers appropriate levels of latency, jitter and packet loss to help ensure the successful concurrent handling of multiple types of traffic, especially voice and video, from customer site to customer site."
Whether you have standard analog phones, a Key System, a digital PBX, or an IP-PBX, Duet can work for you with one of the following products:
- Duet : Use your existing equipment and phones.
- Duet PRI: Use your existing digital PBX equipment and phones.
- Duet SIP Trunking: Use your existing IP-PBX equipment and phones.
Agents can not only sell the bundle, but can also sell MPLS-VPN and Managed Security. MegaPath offers a network-based firewall to keep it simple for small businesses. The voice service is delivered over the providers MPLS network. It is apparent that MegaPath has grow past its roots of being a straight DLEC (data CLEC based on DSL). In fact, th ecompany told me at the IT Expo that it no longer aggregates BellSouth DSL via RBAN. I guess they have grown their own network with ADTRAN DSLAMs, Cisco routers and switches, Acme Packet session border controllers, and Broadsoft's softswitch platform. Now MegaPath is throwing a party to announce its inter-operability with SUTUS and Polycom. It completes the package. See you in Vegas.
Great write-up on the event Peter! I think this is going to be a real hit with the Reseller crowd out there as all three parties, Polycom, Megapath and Sutus have collaborated to put together a real exciting incentive program.
Putting a bundle together like this is about driving value down to the end customer with a turn-key phone, data and networking solution at an affordable price.
Cheers! and Thanks!
Jon Paul