In a freewheeling chat with talks in detail about open source IP PBX solutions.
astTECS, Q It is often said that the commercial support costs for open source solutions are very high compared to the implementation costs. How good is the community support for an open source IP PBX? This is a misconception and there is no rationale behind it. Support costs are actually high among the vendors offering proprietary technology, since this is directly related to the increased manpower involved and overheads attached. In the case of open source, project support typically comes through community forums within a quick turnaround time and, also, the staffing costs of typical Asterisk companies are far less than the proprietary vendors.
In terms of features and functionality, some of the proprietary products have far less features compared to the open source products, which come with powerful inbuilt features like video-conferencing, voicemail-to-email, phoneless desktops with smartphone clients, Skype integration, WebRTC support, etc. These additional features do require additional support, which leads to the false impression that open source products require more support. Q In a proprietary system, we often face issues when upgrading the system based on the growth of the business. How well do open source IP PBX solutions address such problems? Open source IP PBX is constantly being upgraded by the developer community, which involves lower development costs. Open source systems are free from vendor lock-in and this opens up tremendous possibilities to do a costeffective upgradation.
In case of proprietary technology, upgrades and spares are available only from the vendors the solution was purchased from, and they insist that even the phones be purchased from them. This leads to a market that is a quasi monopoly, leading to increased dependence on a vendor and high prices. Open source solutions revolve around multiple hardware and software vendors. The ease of switching from one vendor to another ensures fair competition, resulting in higher service levels and lower costs for upgradation and continued support. Q Is the hardware associated with an open source IP PBX solution easily available in the Indian market? The open source IP PBX hardware scenario is really encouraging. Today, not only can third-party hardware be imported, but there are also a lot of Indian manufacturers offering open source hardware like interface cards for PRI, FXS, FXO, GSM, etc. The ecosystem is well set to welcome the impending boom. QWill
hosted telephony services compete against open source IP PBX solutions? Open source IP PBX solutions can also work as hosted solutions. Hosted solutions are just another mode of service delivery to the end customer and therefore do not have any major impact on the overall market opportunities. QApart
from the low cost of implementation, what are the other benefits of having an open source IP PBX solution? The significant benefits of open source IP PBX solutions are common to many open source products. They have some compelling advantages. First, they are rich in features. The basic versions of open source IP PBX solutions come with advanced features like video-conferencing, CRM-integration, WebRTC support, etc.
Second, they are easy to upgrade. Communication technology is developing at an unprecedented fast pace. Protocol upgradations for SIP, WebRTC, etc; communication changes like TAPI, Skype, etc; or integration with Microsoft and Lotus suites are becoming everyday needs. The community is very fast in developing these interfaces and the upgradation is mostly free or with nominal charges.
Third, there is no vendor lock-in. Enterprises may want to upgrade and expand their PBX systems to include new capabilities. The open nature of the product allows them to purchase these extensions from multiple vendors and implement them.