The “overnight” success of SpliceCom’s Soft PBXs comes as no surprise to Stuart Bell, SpliceCom’s Business Development Manager for the UK and Ireland. “Several factors have conspired to make this the year of the Soft PBX,” says Bell. “Many end users now view voice as an IT application that needs to fit into their computer environment, whatever form that might take, alongside the rest of their apps. This is particularly true of those who view Unified Communications as integral to their overall IT strategy. These organisations are demanding Soft PBXs from their suppliers; they won’t even consider hardware based IP PBXs. We’re seeing a near 50:50 split between native Linux and virtualised environments, mainly VMware and Windows Hyper-V, when it comes to our Soft PBX installs meeting this type of requirement.”
“We’re also finding potential partners who are more comfortable addressing this type of need beating a path to our door,” continues Bell. “We’re now getting far more approaches from those with a background in computer networking, operating systems, apps and virualisation. They talk the same language as CTOs and IT Directors, so our Soft PBX strategy fits in perfectly with what they’re already doing.
“Then there’s payment,” says Bell. “By introducing an innovative monthly pay-as-you go, flexible licencing plan for our Soft PBXs, in addition to the usual Capex and Opex options, we’re finding we’re winning a lot of deals which originally looked destined for Hosted service suppliers, just because the customer didn’t want to make a capital purchase.
“Finally, there’s the Soft PBXs role in the other big growth market; Hybrid systems. By utilising the same Maximiser OS across all our IP PBXs, be they soft, hard (traditional SpliceCom call servers) or virtual, we can combine Soft PBXs in the cloud/hosted with on-site hardware to provide the ultimate in service reliability and connectivity across multiple sites. Add all of these points together and its easy to see just why the recent growth in our Soft PBX sales has been so spectacular,” concludes Bell.