I can't understand till today how they (and others) are capably to sell PBX hardware when there are free and low cost software alternatives which runs on common x86 hardware. FreePBX for Linux ( https://www.freepbx.org/ ) or MizuSwitch for Windows ( https://www.mizu-voip.com/Software/VoIPServer/FreeSoftswitch... ) are very good free alternatives which can be managed also by non-technical people with zero telecom expe…
It's true that open source can replace some PBX functionality. There are though, operations that require scale or functionality that either doesn't exist, or isn't quite bulletproof in the open source world. SS7 connectivity, geographically spread call centers, priority queuing based on multiple concurrent data sources, drag-drop complex IVR software, natural language parsing, natural language generation, contextual…
Except SS7 you can software based solutions for all the rest costing much less then hardware based solutions from Avaya, Cisco and similar mammoth companies.
Often people think that these hardware based products offers better quality but I often seen the opposite.
I have been working at avaya for the last couple years and I have been scratching my head trying to understand how this company works and how it got into this situation. On one hand its a company thats hasn't made a profit in 10 years but on the other it takes in a billion every quarter. When you look at the numbers it turns out it is paying tens of millions to service the interest on its massive debt... it would be…
By definition, the more leveraged the company, the more of it is owned by creditors. So if the company later does go belly-up, it is the creditors (banks, bondholders, etc.) who lose most on a percentage basis. This simplistic analysis however ignores that before the buyout the company might have been a prosperous self-sustaining entity fully capitalized by common stock with little debt. That common stock, made into…
Thanks for your insight, I will check out your recommendation. As is the case with most things in finance, I'm sure if I scratch the surface there is a fairly straight forward explanation as to why things worked out the way they did. It is amazing how you can work at a place where the owners interests and the leadership goals might not be aligned to what you thought they were. There was a strange situation some months back where by the board filed a notice that if the company was bought they would each get juicy bonuses and even bigger ones if they were fired by the new owners. That was an interesting one.
It's true that open source can replace some PBX functionality. There are though, operations that require scale or functionality that either doesn't exist, or isn't quite bulletproof in the open source world. SS7 connectivity, geographically spread call centers, priority queuing based on multiple concurrent data sources, drag-drop complex IVR software, natural language parsing, natural language generation, contextual…
Except SS7 you can software based solutions for all the rest costing much less then hardware based solutions from Avaya, Cisco and similar mammoth companies. Often people think that these hardware based products offers better quality but I often seen the opposite.
Yes, updated to denote many of the customers that need this are moving to SaaS. SaaS that's probably not 100% based on open source though.
I can't understand till today how they (and others) are capably to sell PBX hardware when there are free and low cost software alternatives which runs on common x86 hardware. FreePBX for Linux ( https://www.freepbx.org/ ) or MizuSwitch for Windows ( https://www.mizu-voip.com/Software/VoIPServer/FreeSoftswitch... ) are very good free alternatives which can be managed also by non-technical people with zero telecom expe…
First, Avaya does run on common x86 servers as well as virtualized and has for many years. Linux and Xen if fact.
Many implementations of freeswitch/asterisk fell apart as they simply don't scale to thousands of users. Yes, I know about Kamailio. Scale doesn't just mean have 50,000 endpoints register to the system and handle the busy hour call volume. It needs to be secure (Avaya encrypts H.323 and SIP very easily (Cisco actually doesn't do well here)). Which means you need to be able manage certs for each gateway, phone and application server. It's needs to be manageable with have full access control and it needs to provide the tools support the environment. A rich ecosystem of proven integrations help here too.
Further, contact centre, when you have 1000 agents, or 25000, the cost of each of those agents doing nothing on a revenue contact centre because of a system crash is wildly expensive. Further, in the event of a major failure of a DC, many such customers also require triple redundancy with each system being able to failover with limited or no impact to the business.
Federal governments require certifications that are very arduous and require substantial techical resources and capital.
I could go on, but this mostly covers Enterprise and federal government.
Now for small businesses it's a completely different issue. FreePBX is ridiculously difficult to configure. Very few people have the skills to understand how to develop and build a dial plan, how to integrate with SIP Trunks from a carrier, and even if they manage that the gateways that are from these other companies have a completely different interface and a completely different skillset. It's simply too hard especially when I can go and pay a small amount per month and either get some kind of a cloud service. Probably the best example for a commercial/open source offer is Digium. But they haven't gained substantial market share compared to the likes of Avaya IP office, Shoretel, Cisco, etc. However, if you do the math, these small systems are actually cheaper than cloud provider because you can run them with very low recurring expense.
In my opinion, Avaya doesn't have a long road ahead. But it had nothing to do with their technology, nothing to do with their business practices, it was entirely the destruction of a business by a private equity firm who thought they could make a quick buck but completely screwed up.
I can't understand till today how they (and others) are capably to sell PBX hardware when there are free and low cost software alternatives which runs on common x86 hardware. FreePBX for Linux ( https://www.freepbx.org/ ) or MizuSwitch for Windows ( https://www.mizu-voip.com/Software/VoIPServer/FreeSoftswitch... ) are very good free alternatives which can be managed also by non-technical people with zero telecom expe…
We used SipX in prod twice and both times were positive experiences. Solid system, easy deployment...superb.
SipXecs is really great. Nortel actually bought PingTel and called it SCS (terrible name). For a moment it looked like there was some hope that the industry was going to see the light, but after the acquisition Avaya promptly killed it off.
Fortunately, because it was open source, we now have SipXecs. Last I worked with it (5 years ago), I'd be comfortable implementing it for a client with less than 1500 users and no complex contact centre. I imagine it is much more capable now.
I still recommend it.
Not to take away from challenges of the legacy telecommunications industry right now, but this article slides in the private equity LBO part of Avaya's story at the very end - and then only hints at what happened here. I hope the pensioners and benefits obligations get paid the money they are owed ASAP, because this is a classic story of private equity (Silver and TPG) financially engineering a cash-siphon from a dyi…
"But this was a deal designed to fail from the start." Can you elaborate on this further? I just made a comment earlier about how Avaya ended up in this situation and I have had a feeling, based on how the last few years have played out, that you might be right: I just dont understand how the owners could have run the company the way they did and make out with a profit.
They thought they were going to be able to do the quick cost cut and then buy another company, in this case Nortel, and then flip it is an IPO. They actually made a mess of the company, then 2008 happened and then made a bigger mess with the Nortel acquisition (strategically made no sense, paid way too much and then botched the integration). The part of the Nortel business that Avaya bought was actually profitable at the time.
Epic cluster.
Not to take away from challenges of the legacy telecommunications industry right now, but this article slides in the private equity LBO part of Avaya's story at the very end - and then only hints at what happened here. I hope the pensioners and benefits obligations get paid the money they are owed ASAP, because this is a classic story of private equity (Silver and TPG) financially engineering a cash-siphon from a dyi…
Yeah, I see maneuvers of this sort as top management's equivalent to grabbing computer monitors, chairs, and coffee machines on their way out the door. The "PE turnaround" story provides a fig leaf to cover the violation of fiduciary duty, letting management + PE firm get away scot-free with stealing the liquidation money.
Admittedly this opinion of mine is based on propaganda from the 2008 election cycle . If it's fundamentally flawed, I'd appreciate if someone would take the time to CMV.
I can't understand till today how they (and others) are capably to sell PBX hardware when there are free and low cost software alternatives which runs on common x86 hardware. FreePBX for Linux ( https://www.freepbx.org/ ) or MizuSwitch for Windows ( https://www.mizu-voip.com/Software/VoIPServer/FreeSoftswitch... ) are very good free alternatives which can be managed also by non-technical people with zero telecom expe…
> are very good free alternatives which can be managed also by non-technical people with zero telecom experience.
Are you kidding me?
I run my own PBX (would count as a SMB from a user/call count perspective). It doesn't run on any open source software, because all FOSS PBXes I looked at where ridiculously hard to configure. FreePBX is a great example there.
Anyhow, I mainly looked into AskoziaPBX and Vodia after that.
Askozia terminated their "diet" version and costs 250+ € (only one variant is offered).
Vodia has a free version (5 extensions, which is exactly enough), and has a more granular licensing scheme. I didn't fully setup Askozia testing, but it looked quite nice. Vodia was also reasonably easy to configure (about 1-2 days initial setup and after a couple weeks I got all the kinks fixed).