The company says that up until now there’s been two basic models for the deployment of business telephony; the Hosted model, where the PBX/Call Control is located “off-site” as far as the customer is concerned, and the CPE model where it’s handled on site. Splicecom suggests we think of these as set menus, when what’s really required is a la carte – the ability to mix-and-match both models within a single network, on a customer-by-customer basis as required. On site call routing with a single IP trunk for “cloud” connectivity to other offices, mobile/home based employees and PSTN breakout - with the option of local ISDN connectivity for resilience. And direct IP connectivity back to the same “cloud” for smaller offices and those working at home. One system, with a single point of management, offering different delivery options based on each company’s specific needs.
“It was the addition of virtualisation to maximiser XS that allowed us to turn this dream into reality,” says Robin Hayman, SpliceCom’s Director of Marketing and Product Management. “The ability to run multiple “virtual” PBXs or Call Servers on a single large, resilient server – or across multiple servers - allows each customer to have their own separate, secure telephone system in “the cloud.” But what’s of even greater importance is the need for the on-site CPE equipment and the virtual Call Servers in the cloud to work intelligently together to deliver one, single, seamless system. In short, they need to run the same call control and associated applications, albeit that they need to run on different hardware platforms to deliver the appropriate functionality at the required price point,” continues Hayman.
This approach to deployment offers the ultimate in choice, both for the channel and their customers’. The SpliceCom Community has access to traditional CPE, Hosted and Managed solutions all built around the same technology and offering the same feature set. They can mix-and-match their sales - to both SMEs and Enterprise organisations - as appropriate to their business profile and/or their customer’s needs. “Our partners are in a unique position,” states Hayman. “Virtualisation has allowed us to eliminate the inconsistencies between feature deliveries across CPE, Hosted and Managed service offers, providing a far “cleaner” sale. At the same time it has helped to extend the quality and quantity of business features available to hosted customers to the same level as those enjoyed by those who have their own on-site PBX.”
And by delivering one single system, customers can choose where they want to run their Unified Communication applications; on their site, purchased and under their control, or virtualised and hosted in the cloud, on a pay monthly basis. Even traditional telephony applications like voicemail, auto attendant and IVR can be treated in the same manner. In addition, because it’s one single system, albeit distributed across sites and in the cloud, there’s built-in configuration back up and Business Continuity.
SpliceCom have been quietly expanding their product and application portfolio, whilst at the same time gaining invaluable experience of both Hosted and Managed environments by working closely with the likes of O-bit Telecom – whose award winning Purple Networx is powered by SpliceCom’s maximiser XS platform – and IP-Xchange. In addition to SpliceCom’s 5 Series platforms for SME requirements, the UK company’s Large Enterprise and Hosted/Managed Services platform maximiser XS was launched during 2007. SpliceCom says they were the first vendor to add Virtual Call Server support, which was initially deployed on a commercial basis, in conjunction with IP-Xchange, during 2008.
“Virtualisation of both call control and applications allows the SpliceCom Community to be able to deliver a complete solution to their customers, be they large or small, without the need for up-front investment in infrastructure, in greater numbers than ever before. In addition, it’s helping to smooth the boundaries between Hosted services, traditional CPE sales and Managed solutions, allowing them to be deployed as complimentary, rather than competitive, offerings,” concludes Hayman.