Source: www.voip-news.com

There’s a new product available that combines elements of trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition and salesforce.com’s AppExchange. Fonality’s trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition can be obtained from Fonality Australia.

The collaboration of the two innovative systems provides a unique customer centric view of a company’s telephony interaction and contributes to the customer value creation.

Fonality Australia director, Marc Englaro said that it used to take time and budget to create the kind of deep integration between a CRM and a phone system.

“Fonality is creating a clear channel between the two systems and helping organisations get a complete picture of the interactions with a customer or prospect. Fonality is the first company to provide automatic logging of phone calls into Salesforce.com. No longer do the sales and service representatives have to manually log calls into the CRM system. Now, all inbound and outbound calls are automatically matched with the corresponding record in Salesforce.com, and call data is captured and logged,” said Fonality Australia director Marc Englaro.

According to the companies:

The Fonality UAE value creation process is driven by the following features:
- Performance Management:
- Automatic Call History provides a detailed history of who employees are calling and the duration of each call.
- Integrated Call Recording allows any call to be recorded from the PBX system and attached to the corresponding record in Salesforce.com.
- Lead Management Reporting provides reports on how many calls were required for conversion, lead activity, etc.
- Agent Activity Reporting ranks agents based on activity and productivity.
- Outbound Call Reporting shows which reports are busiest on the phone, how many calls have been made to leads and customers.

Source: asteriskblog.com

Who doesn’t? Well, if you really want to save that much, you might want to consider switching over to VOIP for your business. It has long been acknowledged that VOIP services are far more cost efficient than traditional telephony services. This is, in fact, the main reason many individuals and businesses are now opting to make use of VOIP.

For Hail & Cotton, the experience is something to be proud of and share with others. Hail & Cotton is a tobacco distribution company in Springfield, Tennessee. When Tres Ransom, the IT director of the company, was tasked with the overhauling of their telephone system, he was faced with a decision. This was whether to either upgrade what they were currently working with or whether to totally trash the system and go with a new one – that is, VOIP.

As with many IT personnel, VOIP seemed like a very feasible option. Ransom had some concerns, however, as he was not sure of what he was getting into. More so, he was not sure that he could do the work all by himself. Still, he did some preliminary legwork and calculated the costs of each option.

If the company were to simply upgrade their current system, it would have cost them as much $64,000. On the other hand, his researched showed that the company would have to shell out only $25,000 with VOIP. Ransom did his research on Asterisk and Trixbox at this time. As a matter of fact, Ransom did not have to do all the work on his own as he had some outside help from Voice Pulse, a well known VOIP service provider. What happened was that Voice Pulse gave the company a free trial using Voice Pulse’s Connect for Asterisk and Trixbox 2.4 CE. Ransom was quite impressed with the free trial PLUS the fact that the whole package cost almost $40,000 less than his other option.

This is indeed a prime example of what VOIP can do for a business. I think it is important to note the important role of the VOIP service provider as well. If Voice Pulse was not able to provide a clear option for Hail & Cotton and if they were not able to provide that free trial which was what impressed the client, then the deal would not have been possible.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Business systems provider Fonality has released trixbox Pro 2.0, a second-gen IP-PBX solution that can be scaled for companies with 20 to 200 employees. It offers hands-free phone provisioning of IP-PBX products, making for quick and easy set-up of new phones.

“Resellers live and die by two things: margin and the time spent on site. trixbox Pro offers 50 percent margins and our hands-free provisioning reduces or eliminates on-site visits,” said Fonality CEO Chris Lyman. “We continue to lead the open source telephony market by introducing innovative and time-saving features.”

The new trixbox Pro also has BRI support and new support for E1 circuits.

According to Fonality:

trixbox Pro now has all the enhanced end user features available in Fonality’s turnkey offering. PBXtra 4.0®. FindMe^® with Boomerang^® Mobile Integration uses presence detection to automatically find employees on their mobile devices, allowing them to answer the call or bounce it to another extension. It allows employees to decide when and how they will be found according to their personal schedule and rules. trixbox Pro automatically observes a person’s keyboard and mouse activity and routes calls to their mobile phone or another number when they are inactive on their computer. FONcall^® is a new plug-in for the Firefox web browser and is the first one-click dialing application for business telephony. By clicking the link, trixbox Pro will automatically take an Aastra or Polycom phone off the hook and dial out to the number hands-free. New branch office integration merges spell-by-name directories, allowing callers to dial into one branch and find an employee at any other branch anywhere in the world.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

I hear that Fonality is doing an overhaul of Trixbox. It’s all geared for solution providers. The news is supposed to be out soon, but with some travel planned I figured I’d point it out now.

Fonality is clearly in a spot where the VoIP world is watching. With offerings also pouring out of company’s like cBeyond, CallTower, onSip from client Junction Networks, M5 and others, businesses now have lots of options that go beyond the Cisco Call Manager and Avaaya PBX’s. With Hosted VoIP gaining ground, and with Asterisk based systems on the rise, Fonality has to make some moves.

It sounds like this is one of them.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

trixbox CE 2.6 Beta is the latest version of trixbox and is ready for you to download at Sourceforge. This release comes with CentOS 5.1 as the OS and Asterisk 1.4 as the engine, trixbox CE 2.4 is the best release of trixbox ever!. 
2.5.0.12 Second beta of 2.6 Cleaner modules Embedded FreePBX Improved Asterisk Info module.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

I was shocked to learn that Trixbox phoned home, delivering more than the version you were using. It seem to have dumped more information based on a request to a remotely-configurable BOT, a software program that can execute certain commands locally once it receives its instructions, any command that Fonality’s TrixBox team wanted.
Initially Trixbox tried to brush off the fact but later agreed that it made a mistake! Yes, in my world we do not program mistakes. Since then they have fixed the issue. But it takes more to convince and I am happy for fonality to have more forgiving customers than me.
This is the best part of open source software, if you do not like them, you do not have to stay with it.
I was a fan of Asterisk@home since it’s inception and had my doubts when Fonality took over the project. But I was happy for the developer who toiled away for while to get some money in his hand.
I do not know about Fonality folks that much to say if they are crooks or Gents but Nerd Vittles, where I got this news says they are not crooks, so I will take that word. But that is not good enough to make the sour taste go away. For me Fonality have to convince me, very hard, to host my or my clients VoIP with them.
As far as Trixbox goes, I have dropped it and replaced with AsteriskNow. I am also testing Nerd Vittles "PBX in a Flash" which I think is also a viable option.
Thank you Asterisk@home, TrixBox, It was good knowing you. (This is in connection with my personal operations). I will continue to cover information about them as we know we all can change. It is never good to think your customers are stupid.
Also please do not forget to read this post by Philippe at FreePBX, another alternative and one I have been using for a long while.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

When you think that nothing can surprise you in the VoiP IP Telephony world, I got surprised today. I went over to Nerd Vittles to check out how he is doing with his tricked out TrixBox. But instead I found that NV has dumped the TrixBox!
The TrixBox, for NV has become; "little too proprietary, too closed, and too commercial for our open source, puritanical tastes" and they have started a new project based on, of course, Asterisk.
So the NV team has embarked upon project that they will drive to make the best-of-breed Asterisk-based development platform. It will be a modular, scalable, IP-based business telephony solution with all the bells and whistles you could dream of.
Talking about your wishes on your favorite Asterisk based project, there is also a forum setup that you could discuss the project and let your wishes be known.
Knowing the way Nerd Vittles handle projects, I am sure this will be a winner, and I am looking forward to play around with the PBX in a Flash!

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Startup Beat reports that "Fonality Adds Reseller Partners in France, Italy, Poland and the UK", expannding Fonality’s reach in Europe. In Addition to ressellers, Fonality will also add Training and Certification workshops starting with certification training workshop in London.
Fonality uses a hybrid-hosted technology based on the open-source Asterisk telephony software.Trixbox is an open-platform phone system targeted at resellers and advanced users.
Read more at Startup Beat.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Today I heard some good news that made me smile. Fonality has proved, once again that OSS Software is viable and people with capability could really make profit and achieve success with Open Source Software.
Not so long ago, TrixBox was a one man SourceForege based project (Under the name Asterisk@home), a good one at that. Over the time the project matured enough to be acquired by Fonality.

After the acquisition, Fonality did a good job of bringing the TrixBox in to the SMB market. First it released the Trixbox 2.0 and subsequently Fonality also released the TrisBox Pro in August 2007.

Now Fonality has announced discounts up to 50% and the fact that 10,000 downloads of the product. To support larger resellers and deployments, Fonality has introduced a revised pricing structure that makes trixbox Pro a compelling alternative for companies with up to 500 seats. These changes can reduce prices up to 50 percent for very large capacity deployments. A new release of trixbox Pro, available now, also supports larger deployments with unlimited mailboxes for voicemail-only extensions, and unlimited use of the Agents on Cell Phones feature which provides enhanced mobility by allowing agents to log into queues remotely.

Fonality has also announced a new reseller tier into the trixbox Reseller Program that allows smaller resellers to qualify for discounts on Fonality products and services by becoming FtOCC (pronounced “F-talk”) certified. The certifications, FtOCC Administrator, FtOCC Technician and FtOCC Engineer are each customized for a different level of technical expertise and depth of experience with trixbox.No quotas are required and certification training includes a free demo kit with two trixbox Pro Call Center Edition lifetime licenses, and one free month of support with certified hardware. Certification and a low initial investment give resellers the accreditation, discounts, and tools to resell and support trixbox Pro without a sales commitment. For more information on registration for FtOCC go to; http://www.trixbox.com/support-and-training/training.

Fonality, www.fonality.com,

Fonality’s trixbox, www.trixbox.org, is home to trixbox CE, trixbox Pro.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Update:
Kristian used a Toyota Siena in his example but I used Prius as it is closer to my real life situation! I used to like high power cars but one day rented a small Prius car. Although I was little uncomfortable, I was traveling at the same speeds (about 65 mph) but saving a lot of gas (from 14 miles per gallon to 45-50 mile per gallon!).

Kristian of ASTLinux fame has done a very nice article on comparison of ASTLinux and TrixBox. First I was wondering where he was going then it hit me! I think if you know Asterisk and have been plying with it’s numerous incarnations, this is a good read.
Kristian, I like fast big hose power cars with stick shift! But I also liked what you wrote about. I think you hit the nail right on the spot.
"In my VMWare session, it (Trixbox) also uses over 200MB of RAM (doing nothing). AstLinux comes in at about 20MB of RAM (doing nothing). That’s a smaller but still significant factor of 10."

Well that’s why I like ASTLinux for where there is not much room and less resources, Trixbox for people who like mice and nice screens a lot. (these are about 75 present of people ask for)

Here is the artile by Kristian Kielhofner, the creator of ASTLinux!

Disclaimer!
I use both the products! in different situations. Both does what it supposed to do but I will not compare the two. It will be like comparing my Ferrari (only in dreams) to my Prius (real, ‘cos I love this earth). Both are cars! I dream about Ferrari and love and use Prius every day!

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

VoIP IP Telephony @ http://snapvoip.blogspot.com
The TrixBox Appliance that is a hardware appliance designed only by Trixbox for Trixbox has been sold to it’s first customer at VON.
The product is slated to ship by June 24th 2007, and available in Seven configured forms;
From the base model to the single span T1 in the standard form. There is also a Enterprise version again expanding from Enterprise base to Dual T1 model.

According to the Trixbox Appliance site; (Where you will also be able to find the models and pricing)
TrixBox Appliance features,

• Rackmount Options – The trixbox Appliance can be mounted five different ways: 19” telephony relay rackmount, cabinet slide-mount, wall mount and free-standing floor or tabletop.

• Telephony Expansion Capability – trixbox Appliance can scale up to 4 T1s or 48 analog lines. The trixbox appliance supports Asterisk®-compatible cards from virtually any telephony card manufacturer.

• Enhanced Reliability – With the dual power supply, the trixbox Appliance Enterprise Edition offers high reliability with the ability to run on multiple power sources; a feature you won’t find on any other telephony appliance.

• Data Security – Mirrored hard drives ensure that your data is always safe from a hardware failure.

• Easy Networking – Featuring network connectivity on the motherboard and an onboard 4-port switch, the trixbox Appliance can be networked in a variety of configurations to meet your specific business needs.

• Increased Air Flow – What’s that loud noise you hear? It’s not your trixbox Appliance! With its intriguing one-of-a-kind custom front panel and limited fan noise, the trixbox Appliance was designed to be seen, not heard.

• LCD Display – With a back-lit 4 line LCD included prominently on the front of your trixbox Appliance, you can check the status of the system, including call and queue metrics/details, all in a single glance.

• Quality Hardware – The trixbox Appliance Enterprise Edition comes with pre-configured Sangoma line cards with industry-leading Octasic echo-cancellation hardware inside to give you high quality phone calls.

Customer who purchased the first Trixbox Appliance.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

VoIP IP Telephony @ http://snapvoip.blogspot.com

The VON 2007 was a blast. Among many other things that I spent my two days at VON, I noticed very well how AsteriskNOW is coming out in full force. There were controversies related to Trixbox etc, but AsteriskNOW has opened the IPPBX application to thousands more users who would have stayed away due to the complexities of running Asterisk.
Now that the GUI management tool is providing a way to manage most of the Asterisk tasks, more and more people will be searching the value of Asterisk, through AsteriskNOW. According to official reports, there were more than 2,000 Downloads a Day of AsteriskNOW Beta since it’s release.
The new beta version of AsteriskNOW, AsteriskNOW beta 5 is slated to be the the final beta leading up to Q2 availability of AsteriskNOW 1.0. Customers can deploy AsteriskNOW in minutes to start using Asterisk.
I deployed an AsteriskNOW server with Digium hardware, two TDM400P cards, in less than 20 minutes. The deployment was in a real world scenario, PBX, IPPBX for a 6 person startup. Although there are Linux experts in the group, the groups receptionist, handles and manages AsteriskNOW.
What hardware did they use? well $299 Fry’s PC with an additional hard drive (Used for mirroring).

Links;
Digium’s press release on AsteriskNOW
AsteriskNOW, go get it