SwitchVox Developer Central

SwitchVox / Digium
Digium, announced the Switchvox Developer Central, an online community for developers who are integrating voice and web applications using the Switchvox unified communications solution. Switchvox is a part of Digium’s family of voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems and solutions for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

Complete Press Release and Media Kit;
05.19.2009 – HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--Digium(R), Inc., the Asterisk(R) Company, today unveiled Switchvox Developer Central, an online community for developers who are integrating voice and web applications using the Switchvox unified communications solution. Switchvox is Digium's family of voice over IP (VoIP) phone systems for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). Switchvox systems, which are based on the open source Asterisk telephony platform, are cost-effective, easy to use and full of features that are typically found only in expensive PBXs.

Available since April, Switchvox SMB 4.0 includes the new Switchvox Extend API. This new toolset lets developers integrate Switchvox with their business applications using an XML API, IVR management tools and event notifications. Utilities such as Fire Dialer, the click-to-call extension for Firefox, or the Switchvox Outlook Plugin are examples of the applications that can be created using the Switchvox Extend API. The newly released API is currently in beta.

Switchvox Developer Central is a website for developers to connect with one another to share ideas and solve problems. It includes a wiki containing all documentation for the Switchvox Extend API, a forum for ongoing discussion, a blog for the Digium engineering team to post news to the community, and tools to simplify development and testing. Digium’s new developer crossroads, http://developers.digium.com, lets users choose their development platform or path—Asterisk.org if they want to contribute directly to the open source software or Switchvox Developer Central if they want to integrate with Switchvox using the Switchvox Extend API.

"The Extend API was one of the most important new capabilities released in Switchvox SMB 4.0 and we want to provide documentation for it in a living format," said Joshua Stephens, general manager of Digium's San Diego operations, where Switchvox is developed. "An administrator or reseller of a Switchvox system can integrate their phone system with a custom web application that's completely tailored to their business or an employee's job function. If they have the skills to create the web application, integrating with Switchvox will be easy because they can use whatever programming language they're comfortable with, so there's virtually no learning curve or specialized knowledge required. If they've worked with any web-based API before, this is going to look really familiar, so they should be able to ramp up quickly."

Tags: SwitchVox, Digium, voip news, Asterisk

VoIP News Lists Best 25 VoIP Innovations Of 2008

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
VoIP News has published another very good article about most influential and innovative products, ideas and such of 2008. To be honest, I read through the complete article. So I think you might be interested in it as well so follow the link for the article.
The Top 25 VoIP Innovations of 2008

Tags: Best 25 VoIP Innovations Of 2008, VoIP News, Top 25 VoIP Innovations of 2008

EMBARQ Selects The MetaSwitch For EMBARQ Smart IP Enterprise

Alameda, CA: August 20, 2008. MetaSwitch, a leading solutions and application provider, today announced that EMBARQ® has selected the MetaSwitch softswitch, media gateway and MetaSphere application suite to form the core of its new EMBARQ Smart IP Enterprise^SM solution. The integrated business solution, hosted in EMBARQ's core network, delivers an advanced suite of communication services to business customers.

"After evaluating the leading VoIP application server vendors, we selected MetaSwitch because it offers a rich set of advanced services built on a carrier-class softswitch platform, all supported by an extremely responsive team," said Susan Sarna, vice president of marketing and product management for EMBARQ Business. "MetaSwitch's solutions enable EMBARQ to deliver innovative applications designed to help business customers improve employee productivity and enhance customer service."

EMBARQ Smart IP Enterprise^SM will provide business customers with a bundled package of dedicated Internet access, local and long distance voice services and IP-enabled call features. The MetaSphere application suite enables click-to-dial with Microsoft Outlook integration and advanced voicemail features, all managed via the MetaSphere CommPortal user interface. MetaSwitch is also providing enhanced IP-enabled features, including rules-based call forwarding, Auto Attendant and Music On Hold. Features like SimRing, sequential ring and remote click-to-dial will enable EMBARQ's business users to improve customer service by integrating remote workers in virtually any location. In addition to the MetaSwitch softswitch, media gateway and MetaSphere application suite, EMBARQ has chosen MetaSwitch's SIP Provisioning Server to help ease the deployment of its SIP phones.

"Businesses are constantly looking to increase productivity without sacrificing customer service, as well as finding new ways to reduce costs," said Graeme MacArthur, chief executive officer, MetaSwitch. "MetaSwitch's solutions enable EMBARQ's business customers to provide advanced services to their employees without the expense of purchasing and maintaining an on-site communications system."

The service is currently being introduced across the EMBARQ network. The flexibility of the MetaSwitch solution will allow EMBARQ to introduce a host of new services to its business customers.

Metaswitch is here and EMBARQ could be found here.

Tags: VoIP business, voip news, EMBARQ Smart IP Enterprise, MetaSwitch softswitch, MetaSphere, SIP Provisioning Server, Snapvoip

Tags: VoIP business, voip news, EMBARQ Smart IP Enterprise, MetaSwitch softswitch, MetaSphere, SIP Provisioning Server

BT Acquires Ribbit, The "Telco 2.0" Company

BT and Ribbit have announced that Ribbit, the company that brought us "phone in a flash" has been acquired by BT for $105 million in cash. At a time when global communication is entering a period of profound and rapid change, this union promises to change the entire communication industry. The team plans to be in fore front of the market and has plans to beat competing communication giants which includes Google’s Android platform and Skype. Ribbit, ‘Silicon Valley’s first phone company’, came to market providing ‘an open platform’ to developers, who can create internet-telephony applications and services around the technology. BT spokesperson said that the Ribbit acquisition would help BT "leapfrog competition and gain a strategic advantage in the Silicon Valley ‘telco 2.0′ platform race, which includes Google Android and Apple’s iPhone SDK. Ted Griggs, Chief Executive of Ribbit, said: "The communications industry is entering a new phase. Closed networks are becoming open platforms and developers are now driving innovation. By adding Ribbit's capability to the power of BT's global 21CN platform, we will now be able to give the development community the tools they need to innovate on a global scale. We are delighted - BT is exactly the partner we were seeking."


Following is the press release;
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- July 29, 2008 -- BT today announced it has acquired Ribbit Corporation, a Silicon Valley-based "Telco 2.0" platform company, for $105 million in cash, on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The acquisition will accelerate BT"s strategy to transform itself into a next- generation, platform-based, software-driven services company. Based in Mountain View, California, Ribbit - "Silicon Valley's First Phone Company" - provides an open platform which enables developers to create new and innovative voice applications and services by combining telephony and internet technologies in new ways. JP Rangaswami, managing director of service design at BT, said: "Silicon Valley is emerging as a hotbed of telecommunications innovation. With Ribbit, not only do we extend our presence in the Valley, but we also gain a groundbreaking platform, a growing community of developers and a world-class team that share a common vision. Buying Ribbit lets us accelerate that vision." Ted Griggs, Chief Executive of Ribbit, said: "The communications industry is entering a new phase. Closed networks are becoming open platforms and developers are now driving innovation. By adding Ribbit's capability to the power of BT's global 21CN platform, we will now be able to give the development community the tools they need to innovate on a global scale. We are delighted - BT is exactly the partner we were seeking." Using Ribbit's platform, developers are able to add voice and automation features to virtually any web-based application or community. For example, using Ribbit, developers have integrated voice into salesforce.com and built voice applications that run directly from Facebook or iGoogle. Since its launch, Ribbit has attracted thousands of developers, launched an innovative solution for the enterprise software market, and has begun testing a consumer application scheduled for general release later this year. The acquisition of the Ribbit platform will complement BT's existing capability in the software platform space with its award-winning Software Development Kit (SDK) initiative. BT's SDKs enable developers to integrate new applications with BT's services using a single line of code. Ribbit, which will maintain its management team and identity, will extend its global footprint by becoming part of BT, one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Michael Boustridge, President, BT Americas said: "The Ribbit platform makes it simpler, cheaper and faster to build communications functionality into applications, enabling developers to introduce new revenue-generating voice services in hours, rather than weeks. By combining the Ribbit platform with BT's existing web services, we have the potential to deliver some of the world's finest applications for communications innovation benefiting consumers and businesses alike." Ribbit Corporation was founded in February 2006 and funded by venture capitalist firms Alsop Louie Partners, Allegis Capital, KPG Ventures and Peninsula Ventures. Ribbit is being acquired from these firms and certain of Ribbit's founders and employees.

Tags: VoIP News, BT, telco 2.0, Google Android, Apple’s iPhone, Skype, Ribbit

Bluesocket, Inc., acquire Pingtel Corp, SIP-based enterprise communications solutions Provider.

SIP-based enterprise communications solutions leader and the keeper of the SIP Foundry has been acquired by Bluesocket Inc.. I have been working with PingTel for a long while and SIPFoundry since it started. People who were using SIPFoundry should be happy as Bluesocket promised to carry forward the open source development championed by Pingtel, including full support for the sipXecs open source project and the SIPfoundry open source community. All Pingtel employees will remain with Bluesocket and the company plans to significantly increase R&D investment to accelerate its strategy of being first to deliver a fully integrated offering to the market.

Following is the press release;

BURLINGTON, MA – Bluesocket, Inc., today announced it has acquired SIP-based enterprise communications solutions leader Pingtel Corp. This strategic move establishes a solid foundation for the delivery of converged mobility and unified communications offerings, and places Bluesocket in a leadership position to provide complete enterprise mobility solutions that combine secure wireless LAN and Voice over IP (VoIP) - including unified communications server technology which will be a key foundation for Bluesocket’s enterprise fixed mobile convergence (FMC) architecture.

Combining Bluesocket’s award-winning WLAN and security capabilities with Pingtel’s leading SIP PBX technology creates opportunities in two key market segments. The first is providing software-based, OEM-ready solutions to larger ecosystem partners seeking faster approaches for delivering integrated wired, wireless and voice offerings to their mid-market enterprise customers. Additionally, the combination enables Bluesocket to now target mid-sized and small enterprises interested in implementing a standards-based mobility solution oriented towards unified voice and data communications.

“The opportunity lies in the fact that the wireless LAN and unified communications markets are converging to create a $10 billion plus market for enterprise mobility solutions,” said Mads Lillelund, CEO at Bluesocket. “As a result of this acquisition, we are better positioned to deliver an integrated solution that meets the mobility needs of customers across a variety of industries. Bluesocket is redefining the meaning of enterprise mobility by seamlessly combining leading unified communications, mobility and security solutions, with significant improvements to the user experience and an overall lower cost of ownership.”

As part of the transaction, Bluesocket and Pingtel will unite their product development efforts, channel partners and end-user base. Pingtel’s SIP-based, unified communications technology will form the basis of Bluesocket’s future FMC solution to manage call hand-off between cellular and enterprise Wi-Fi networks. Bluesocket will accelerate the open source development championed by Pingtel, including full support for the sipXecs open source project and the SIPfoundry open source community. All Pingtel employees will remain with Bluesocket and the company plans to significantly increase R&D investment to accelerate its strategy of being first to deliver a fully integrated offering to the market.

Emerging trends such as the replacement of desk phones with multimodal wireless smartphones, the adoption of open, standards-based solution architectures and the shift to software-based PBX solutions are coming together to create a significant market for unified communications offerings that deliver enhanced mobility to the enterprise. Furthermore, according to research firm Gartner, Inc., “The mobile applications area will continue to focus on the convergence of voice, e-mail, management, security and business applications. Mobile applications convergence will enable business workflow processes to be more portable across networks, geographies, media and end-user devices”(1)(“2007 Key Issues for Mobile Applications,” February 28, 2007).

The combination of Bluesocket and Pingtel creates a company uniquely positioned to deliver on the promise of a seamless converged user experience from the applications perspective. The unified wireless communications value proposition involves more than network layer security, roaming and seamless handoffs. A truly converged solution offers seamless, end-to-end application integration, full telephony and presence feature transparency, plug & play management of all the devices, and the integration of the mobility features into the unified VoIP communications solution.

“During the past several years, Pingtel has transformed the way enterprises buy and deploy VoIP communications,” said William Rich, CEO at Pingtel. “As a result, the company has achieved strong industry momentum and built a solid base of flagship enterprise accounts and OEM customers. Together with Bluesocket we are stronger and better positioned to bring our unified communications and wireless products to market, leverage new channels, and accelerate growth worldwide.”

Pingtel

Tags: voip news, VoIP business, Pingtel Corp, Bluesocket, SIP, SIP PBX technology, wireless smartphones, sipXecs, SIPfoundry

Middletown,New Jersey Township Gets A Reliable Network and Integrated IP Telephony From Extreme Networks, Avaya, and Empire Technologies.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. and BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Extreme Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXTR), and Avaya, a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, today announced that the Township of Middletown, New Jersey, with the help of Avaya Platinum Business Partner Empire Technologies, has deployed converged network and IP telephony solutions that allow it to increase consistency of communications, response times and productivity by more than fifty percent.

Middletown, which has a population of about 67,000, is located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Many of the Township's municipal buildings, including its main administration building, the department of public works, three parks department buildings, and the Johnson Gill annex, were already networked together. When it implemented IP telephony from Avaya, Middletown also upgraded its network to support its requirements for data, VoIP and related unified communications, and to attain the transmission speed and reliability required for the new, high-performance applications.

"In building a new convergence infrastructure and supporting communications applications, our primary concerns were seamless integration, performance and having a strong relationship and understanding with our vendors," said Todd Costello, IT manager for the Township of Middletown. "With Avaya, Extreme Networks® and Empire Technologies, we satisfied this need. In terms of productivity and response time, we are seeing a 50-75 percent improvement in our staff's response time to vendor calls and inquiries from residents. That adds up, and definitely affects the bottom line in a positive way."

The Township had to support video surveillance, VoIP for phones and traditional applications and its IT staff spent time at the Avaya interoperability lab. After experiencing Extreme Networks and Avaya converged solutions in action, working with it, and realizing the depth of integration for a complete converged network solution, the choice became clear.

"Middletown represents a terrific example of how Extreme Networks and Avaya provide a network foundation and feature-rich communication solutions that positively impact the daily operations for our government customers," said Paul Hooper, chief marketing officer for Extreme Networks. "This results in a dependable converged system able to support their mission critical applications while delivering higher value and greater productivity for employees."

Empire Technologies, which specializes in supporting the integration of advanced voice, video and data, was chosen to bring it all together. "After learning more about what the Township wanted to accomplish, we thought an Extreme data solution was the perfect answer and the Middletown Township team agreed," said Cordell Toson, president and CEO for Empire Technologies.

"To serve our customers and enable them to reap the benefits of IP telephony -- such as improved customer service -- it's important that we integrate with and support product lines from vendors such as Extreme Networks," said Richard O'Hara, director, strategic alliances, Avaya. "Avaya is focused on building a reliable, ubiquitous, secure, open-standards based communication foundation across the variety of networks and technologies that our customers use."

Avaya provided Middletown with an advanced IP telephony solution that features an Avaya S8500 Media Server with industry-leading Avaya Communication Manager, the company's IP telephony platform. The S8500 Media Server is designed for a distributed enterprise over an IP infrastructure. Middletown's network also includes an Avaya G650 Media Gateway, which has the features, scalability, and system uptime that enterprises require for mission-critical telephony applications, and Avaya 4600 Series IP telephones. Middletown is using Avaya Site Administrator software, which is part of Avaya's suite of network administration tools, and the Extreme Network EPICenter® network management application, to monitor and manage its converged network.

Extreme Networks provided Middletown with a consistent converged network solution based on its BlackDiamond® 8800 modular switch and Summit® edge switches. This is boosted with consistent software with advanced security and convergence features. Middletown can specify bandwidth priority, and minimum and maximum bandwidth per traffic group, which enables the creation of policies that guarantee network availability for voice traffic even during times of network congestion. This performance and consistency became significant when Township employees are downloading hefty video files and simultaneously utilizing VoIP.

Tags: VoIP business, voip news, AVAYA, Extreme Networks, Empire Technologies, converged network, IP telephony, Avaya S8500 Media Server, Avaya Communication Manager, Avaya G650 Media Gateway, Avaya 4600 Series IP telephone

ShoreTel, Best Overall VOIP Provider In The Nemertes PilotHouse Awards.

SUNNYVALE, CA, July 22, 2008 - ShoreTel, Inc., (NASDAQ: SHOR), a leading provider of Pure IP Unified Communications (UC) solutions, today announced that for the fifth year in a row ShoreTel has been named the Best Overall VOIP Provider in the Nemertes PilotHouse Awards for Unified Communications & Collaboration. The awards rated 24 VOIP vendors based entirely on the views and experiences of 426 customers.

ShoreTel won the Best Overall VOIP Provider award based on earning the highest average rating (4.22 out of 5) across all categories. ShoreTel was tops in:

• Technology - covering underlying software, platforms, intelligence and standards compliance
• Product Features - focusing on handset and switch capabilities. Customers like the architecture, built-in redundancy and ability to scale by stacking additional switches
• Customer Service - focusing on response time, account service, RFP process, and warranty issues. Customers like that ShoreTel listens well to suggestions for upgrades and improvements
• Value - focusing on "bang for the buck" - customers feel they received value for their expenditure. Customers like that the capital, implementation and operational costs are lower than competitors and that ShoreTel includes its Personal Call Manager desktop client with every license
• Solution Experience - focusing on the ability to understand business requirements and craft solutions that meet customer needs
• Ease of Installation and Troubleshooting
• UC Vision - indicating the best plan and outlook for moving customers from VOIP to a full UC deployment
• ShoreTel was also one of the top three rated vendors for integration capabilities, which tracks how well products integrate with third-party products and applications

"We're extremely pleased that Nemertes has provided an independent opportunity for our customers to express satisfaction with their ShoreTel UC systems," said Steve Timmerman, vice president of marketing, ShoreTel. "We understand the business and communications challenges our customers face, and we will continue to create the systems that meet their most exacting demands for high reliability, ease of deployment and use, and features that provide them with a competitive edge. We are especially proud that we have earned the top spot in Nemertes' evaluation for the fifth straight year."

The Nemertes report offered the following insights into ShoreTel and its customers.

Assessing Real Customer Experiences

"One key message from these findings is that biggest does not equate to best. Although Cisco, Avaya and Nortel have the largest market share, when evaluated across all industries and all sizes of companies, they do not score in the top three providers. This indicates market share among all sizes of companies may be more a function of marketing efforts rather than true customer experience. (It is important to note the top scores change when we segment the findings by industry and by segment size. …)"

A True Plug-and-Play Implementation

"ShoreTel's ease of installation has been a hallmark of its customer satisfaction. In fact, one of ShoreTel's highest scores (4.56) is for ease of installation and troubleshooting. Year after year, ShoreTel customers praise the product line, describing it as "true plug-and-play" implementation. Many initially had no intention to use ShoreTel, but VARs were able to do quick sales demonstrations in which they established a VOIP system in a matter of a few hours-and that impressed the prospective customers enough to buy the system. 'ShoreTel has very user-friendly, durable products,' says the telecom manager for a distribution company with 400 endpoints."

A Company That Listens

"ShoreTel customers of all sizes say the vendor is responsive to concerns or problems, and that it listens well to suggestions for upgrades and improvements. 'With ShoreTel, you don't get the run-around. They do what they say, when they say they will,' says the IT director for a non-profit agency with 200 endpoints."

System Value

"ShoreTel's customers also feel they get good value with ShoreTel's product line. The capital, implementation and operational costs are lower than most competitors."

The Nemertes Research press release we reported earlier.

Tags: Unified Communications, Best Overall VOIP Provider, Nemertes PilotHouse Awards, voip bang for the buck

Create Telephony Mashups And Win At BroadSoft Xtended Voice Mashup Contest,

Gaithersburg, md, July 8, 2008 — BroadSoft Inc., the leading provider of VoIP application software, today announced the BroadSoft Xtended Voice Mashup Contest to create telephony mashups that provide new, valuable services for businesses and consumers.

Running through Sept. 2, the Xtended Voice Mashup Contest challenges Web 2.0 and telecom developers to combine the multitude of BroadWorks® VoIP features with other applications, including customer relationship management, business collaboration and social networking. Telephony applications such as SMS, voicemail, fax and mobile clients also qualify for submission. Developers will have access to the Xtended Services Interface (Xsi) RESTful API during the contest.

Developers will compete for the top three prizes, which are valued at $15,500, $5,500 and $3,500. A panel of experts will select the winners, who will demo their mashups to hundreds of telecom executives from around the globe at the BroadSoft Connections 2008 executive users conference, held in Phoenix, Arizona from Oct. 5-8. Noted author Tim O’Reilly, who is credited with coining the phrase “Web 2.0,” is the event keynote speaker.

The contest winners will be announced at the Web 2.0 Expo New York 2008, which takes place Sept. 16-19.

”BroadSoft is committed to bringing voice to Web 2.0,” said Leslie Ferry, Vice President of Marketing for BroadSoft. “This contest will spur the creation of even more innovative telephony mashups using the new REST-based API. Our customers are eager to find new services to offer to their millions of enterprise and residential end-users.”

The prizes are:

• First Place – $5,000 in cash, and an all-expenses-paid trip to BroadSoft Connections 2008 with a free Solutions ShowCase booth (valued at $10,500).
• Second Place – $2,000 in cash, and an all-expenses-paid trip to BroadSoft Connections with a complimentary pass (valued at $3,500).
• Third Place – $1,000 in cash, and a complimentary pass to BroadSoft Connections 2008 (valued at $2,500).

After winners are announced, completed entries will be posted on the Xtended Marketplace (http://marketplace.broadsoft.com), an online portal where service providers and their end-users can download mashups. Developers can generate revenue by charging a fee for their applications or by building customized versions of their apps for service providers.

“I was able to sell my app to a major service provider in the U.S.,” said Joseph Farrar, president of JoeDeveloper.NET, who created the Click2Message application that integrates BroadWorks calling features with the Facebook social-networking site. “By working with BroadWorks through the Xtended program, I have access to a global pool of service providers who could try out my mashup. For the opportunity to sell more mashups to service providers, I will definitely be entering the Xtended Voice Mashup Contest.”

“The applications on the Xtended Marketplace have already given us a competitive edge,” said Dave Gilbert, president of SimpleSignal. “By offering the salesforce.com mashup—the Unified Connector for Salesforce—we were able to win a contract over a Tier 1 competitor. Xtended and voice mashups are the obvious next evolutionary phase of telephony services.”

BroadSoft Xtended Marketplace, the first of its kind for the telecommunications industry, was launched in March to drive the integration of voice with Web 2.0 technologies. The initiative has spurred the creation of voice mashups with leading business and consumer applications, including Facebook, WebEx, Lotus Notes, ACT! by Sage and GotVoice. Newly created mashups are available to BroadSoft's nearly 300 service providers in 59 countries.

For rules and prize details for the Xtended Voice Mashup Contest, visit http://developer.broadsoft.com/contest.
The contest is free to enter. Developers can register at http://developer.broadsoft.com/contest.

Tags: voip news, Voice Mashup, Xtended Voice Mashup Contest, BroadWorks VoIP, RESTful API, Xtended Services Interface, BroadSoft Inc.