voip applications

BroadSoft CEO: "Bullish" on 2009

Doug Mohney — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:09:13 -0500

This week FierceVoIP talked to BroadSoft CEO Michael Tessler about the Sylantro acquisition, managing three distinct product lines, competitors in the VoIP applications space, and what prospects for 2009 look like.

"We have a strong position in the [VoIP applications server] market," said Tessler. "That position got stronger with the Sylantro customer base... It's a good synergistic fit, not only by adding the customer base, but having the ability for us to work with the customers we've acquired."

Since many of the customers are Tier 1 service providers, they are "pretty demanding," and BroadSoft has to make sure they can support both the existing in-place platforms and the customer. "We've moved over the technology functions, the people who were doing [support] at Sylantro," Tessler said. "We have all the capability Sylantro has, we have those employees. [Sylantro] customers shouldn't be worried, the support lines are there, all the crew is there."

With the acquisition of Sylantro, BroadSoft has three distinct product lines to support: its own, the GENBAND M6 applications server, and Sylantro's. While BroadSoft would like to get everyone onto one platform at some point, "that road is probably long," Tessler stated. "One problem you have in terms of acquiring a like competitor, you can't do a deep dive on integration until you close. Right now, we're matching platform to platform, what is on the roadmaps, what is needed. We've already done outreach to [Sylantro] customers, understanding their needs."

Right now, BroadSoft has to work with Sylantro customers in a "collaborative fashion" to put together a roadmap for additional features, and, ultimately, to move to a consolidated platform. "Clearly as a business, we'd like to converge those platforms, but that is a little early right now," Tessler said.

"One of the good things [we] learned through process of acquiring the GENBAND server, is [working] through [the acquisition] process... working with customers, locking down the roadmap, integrating the teams," said Tessler. "We were able to reuse the learnings in the Sylantro acquisition. We're in day one or two of that now, we're just starting process of collaborating with customers, understand what they were doing, and working with them on the future."

While BroadSoft has bought its most prominent competitor, it doesn't have a free ride ahead. "I wish I could say there's no competition, but there is," said Tessler. "It depends upon the market segment, geography. The Comverse guys are still around with Netcentrix. In the U.S. market, it's MetaSwitch with MetaSphere. On the consumer side we see the softswitch IMS core vendors, all the big switch manufacturers have their feature server platforms. There's a fair amount of competition. You see regional players in Asia, in Europe."

As an independent and pure-play applications server company, Tessler says BroadSoft is in a "pretty strong" position, with manufacturers sometimes competing with them and sometime acting as a channel to resell BroadSoft. "The key message is we've been able to build a very strong brand and use that to consolidate the space," he said. "We're looking forward to integrating the Sylantro team. We'll work with work with customers on their plans."

Looking to the future, Tessler is optimistic for the new year. "We're pretty excited and pretty bullish about 2009," he said. "What we've seen are carriers well underway in TDM projects and they are not going to stop. There's enough economics to make those transitions, and we don't see that changing.

"Will some spending slow down? Clearly, but that doesn't mean that [next generation network purchases] are going to stop. Every carrier is well under way [to NGN]. BroadSoft is active in 60-plus markets and there's a lot of transformation going on. We don't see that going down."

BroadSoft acquiring Sylantro - The impact

Pete Wylie — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:45:45 -0500

In a major consolidation of the VoIP application server space, BroadSoft Inc. is expected to publicly announce its acquisition of Sylantro Systems before Christmas -- if not sooner. Multiple sources with insight into BroadSoft and Sylantro say it's a done deal, with former Sylantro employees conducting a privately-held wake on a LinkedIn discussion.

At BroadSoft, the acquisition is being viewed as a major boon with great respect being given to Sylantro's past accomplishments in the marketplace, as well as its current brand strength. The company will gain 50 new customers from Sylantro, including AT&T, Qwest, Swisscom and NuVox. BroadSoft executives describe Sylantro as a "formidable competitor" for the past decade and say they are "fortunate" to be able to acquire such a strong brand.

Terms of the deal appear to have been quite favorable. Sources say BroadSoft believes it will be able to generate positive cash flow from the acquisition in 2009, a feat it attributes to the consideration and terms of the merger.

Others "in the know" on the transaction say that Sylantro was running out of cash with no means to raise additional capital. A shotgun wedding with BroadSoft was a way to save jobs for some employees and spare existing customers the uncertainty of a bankruptcy filing.

Sylantro's R&D office in Bangalore, India, is listed as a "key asset" in the acquisition. In addition, BroadSoft expects to keep a (smaller) office in Sylantro's Silicon Valley HQ and keep parts of the sales organization.

Doug Mohney contributed to this report.

For more:
- We don't think it's a rumor anymore, but we do not have official confirmation from either company. RUMOR MILL: BroadSoft buys Sylantro

RUMOR MILL: BroadSoft buys Sylantro

Doug Mohney — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:20:47 -0500

If our sources are correct (and we're not being elaborately punked), BroadSoft has tendered an offer to Sylantro for acquisition, and Sylantro's board of directors approved the deal earlier this week. Terms of the deal apparently are not favorable to most/many Sylantro stock holders, but some will walk away with some cash.

A BroadSoft representative declined to comment on the matter, saying it is the company's policy not to comment on rumors. Calls and emails to Sylantro for comment were not returned by press time.

Sylantro is said to have circulated documents to its private shareholders describing the deal and asking for their consent to the merger, requesting a response by December 12, 2008. Stockholders and option holders outside of the Series E-1 Preferred class are being asked to "consent" to the retirement of shares or options in exchange for nothing.

As a part of the acquisition, BroadSoft is supposedly agreeing to take on 11 Sylantro employees and a bunch of people will get cash compensation of some sort; most likely for termination of employment contracts.

Another source described the deal as an "asset sale" with Sylantro having to do the deal because it ran out of cash and wants to avoid bankruptcy.

Rumors of BroadSoft and Sylantro getting together first started circulating this fall, with more-than-the-usual buzz coming out of BroadSoft's annual users conference. Sources close to BroadSoft and analysts in attendance at the conference said they had heard a deal between the two parties was under discussion.

Vendors dealing with Sylantro said the company had curtailed spending and quietly implemented some staffing cuts over the past few months, with belt tightening occurring after the company's Global Summit 2008 user group event in mid-October. Sylantro's PR firm was put on hiatus after Global Summit.

A source close to BroadSoft said the company had raised another round of venture capital in September or October - a move upsetting to some employees since BroadSoft CEO Michael Tessler had foresworn the need for more money after taking its last round of investment. If true, we now know what the money was used for.

If the deal has gone down, it brings together VoIP application server market-leader BroadSoft and its largest rival in the space.

Pete Wylie contributed to this report

For more:
- A former Sylantro employee said a deal was done on Tuesday, Dec. 16. Blog.

The Ghosts of Presence Past

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:17:25 -0500

By Carl Ford

Black Friday in the shopping world comes earlier and earlier. One of our radio stations is already playing nothing but Christmas songs. When I think about Christmas, stories like "A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life" come to mind, and I think of the things that might have been. One of them occurred to me when I got in contact with an old friend who was the leader of Telia's Golden Gate project.

Never heard of it? That's a shame. It was one of the best attempts to make VoIP and the PSTN marry on presence. It allowed you to categorize callers in groups like family, coworkers and friends, as well as keeping unknown numbers separate. With Golden Gate, you could set up separate routing and availability rules for each of these groups. Caller ID appeared everywhere simultaneously, and the system also tracked you by your presence. The only thing missing was SMS of the Caller ID.

In the same way time-to-live status in DNS works, or the system reports you as idle on Instant Messaging, Golden Gate followed me with a level of granularity that we do not have today. And it was integrated into the switching of the PSTN, so the presence function supported black phones, wireless and VoIP.

So why did this not become the service of the future?

The standard excuse is the concern about cross elastic effects. "It will hurt our existing product line," has been the stock excuse.
The problem I have is that the product line is already being diminished by wireless replacement. So if Golden Gate were being offered today, would the company embrace it?

Again, I doubt it. Now, the wireless operator is the dominant player in headquarters, and I can't think of a way to convince them that the cross-elastic effect is neutral here. It would mean that all paths were equal and toll plans bundled together would have to be agreed upon, while VoIP is usually free and black phones are in all you can eat pricing. Only cellular maximizes the profits, and people are running to cellular and ignoring the price. At least they had been.

The lessons of economic downturns for wireless can only be based on the recession of 2001. When that occurred, the consumers churned based on price.

But now, the rules that separated the wireline from the wireless carriers have been relaxed. I believe a comprehensive offering could be made that retains customers in bad times and maybe makes a small contribution on its own.

Now the real problem: Who would offer such a service? I can't make a case for Verizon, or AT&T, because of their efforts to win the smartphone battle. T-Mobile and Sprint don't own a landline business, so they are a poor choice too, and the cable operators still have a bad taste in their mouth from their PIVOT deal with Sprint.

The Golden Gate Ghost will have to remain a ghost at least here. In Sweden, maybe Telia can unshackle itself and bless us, everyone, with the innovation they saw in presence during Christmases past.

Doing and knowing

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:36:57 -0400

by Thomas Howe

Today's service providers are real "doers." From business model to world view, carriers see the world in terms of what they can do for their customers. They excel at doing things like connecting two phones, sending a text message or creating a conference. Larger operators do things like write custom telephone applications or integrate enterprise software into call centers. In theory and in practice, today's service providers work off of a single business model : take a rare thing, and charge the subscriber for "doing" something with it. For years, this has been a lucrative path, and still widely is, but the tide has changed, primarily because the "doing" has gotten easier. Open source software, multiple transport paths such as cable, fiber and the myriad wireless options all contribute to an exponential rise in the number of service providers able to "do" something for businesses and consumers. This increased supply adds pricing pressure to providers, forcing them to seek better approaches and business models.

Tomorrow's service providers will rely on a very different sort of model: "knowing." Instead of generating value by "doing" things for people, they will generate value by "knowing" things that they learn by "doing" things for people. Focused on data collection, the carriers will be experts at your social network, because your real social network exists in your call detail records. They will be knowledgeable about where you spend your time, because they can track your cell phone. They will know what sorts of TV shows you watch, because they deliver video to your handset, or, because of quad play, they provide your home TV service as well. Unlike "doing", which is rather easily replicated, "knowing" is nearly impossible to replicate. Sure, a new carrier can start to collect your personal data, but they cannot recreate your past data. That sort of data is safe and sound in the walls of your current operator, and it's not going anywhere, and one day - because the data isn't moving - neither will you.

What sorts of things can a service provider know? The obvious ones are personal information and context. The trusted billing relationship between carrier and customer provides information like address, age, family structure, gender and nationality. Only the carriers can really determine our life context: where we are, who we talk to, if we are in a moving car... STL Partners identifies seven different categories of digital assets a carrier has access to, including information about relationships, interactions and devices. All of these assets are examples of things that carriers "know" - all things that are difficult to reproduce and all things are that are immensely valuable.

The problem? Privacy. At this point, you hear the privacy objections immediately. Here's what's missing from that: permission. There are all sorts of times when users gladly give up their personal information, and there's no reason to think that this is going to be different here. When consumers see giving personal information up as a benefit, and they're asked for it, they will generally give it. Location based Apple iPhone apps are a great example: when I want to use Yelp to find a place to eat, and it asks to use my current location, I'm annoyed that it even asked. I'd rather it just do that automatically. The value I find from finding a great place to eat far outweighs my concerns about who knows where I am. One day, the carriers might power the Barnes and Noble member card service. For a 10 percent discount on my purchases, I will allow the bookstore access to my data. As I walk into the store, the carrier will notify the shop keeper that I've entered, and send coupons to my phone based on my past purchases. Maybe they know my wife bought this book yesterday, or suggest one that a Facebook friend bought last week. As I walk up to the counter, my smart device will automatically pay for my purchase - no need to whip out credit card or member card. For me, the consumer, it's all good. For the carrier, it's better than good - it's the final answer to the dump pipe problem.

Thomas Howe is a long-time telecom consultant, writer and speaker who is the CEO of the Thomas Howe Company, providing expertise in improving the business process with real-time communications. His website is at http://www.thomashowe.com

FierceVoIP Leaders: Marco Limena, CEO Sylantro Systems

Doug Mohney — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:49:24 -0400

On the eve of Sylantro's annual users conference, FierceVoIP chatted with Sylantro Systems CEO Marco Limena to discuss the state of the VoIP industry and what the future may hold for the industry and Sylantro.

FierceVoIP: Everyone has got the financial crisis on their minds these days. What do you think the implications will be for telephony and VoIP?

Limena: I think experimental projects and infrastructure budgets will be cut, and vendors will really have to justify the business benefit of what they are doing.

FierceVoIP: How do you think it will affect your company directly?

Limena: Most of the more than 95 carriers we work with sell services for around $25 per month. They tell me, Marco, we spend an average of $200 in sales cost to reach a customer and more on other costs, so it takes us about 12 months to reach profitability with each customer. If the customer has any issue with a piece of the product you have provided and needs to place a single call back for assistance, we've just delayed profitability for three more months, and that's not something we can afford. So we must work to provide a product that is not only useful and valuable, but reliable and easy to use as well.

FierceVoIP: What are some changes you see coming in the VoIP space, or would like to see happen?

Limena: For a long time, the industry has operated in silos of technology. Voice was voice, text was text, so on so on. But we're moving beyond that, you see software driving the next-gen softphones and you see vertical silos being replaced by integrated telephony platforms. The question for the future really is how can you deliver simple, reliable solutions and specialized applications for business, because the "one size fits all" approach is not going to work going forward.

FierceVoIP: Does Sylantro have any product announcements coming in the next quarter?

Limena: We are really excited about launching our new set of specialized applications for our Web platform that were developed in our Synapps "sandbox." You'll see some great innovation in automated inbound and outbound campaigns, for instance, a car dealership wants to inform customers about warranty options about to expire on vehicle purchases, or a university wants to notify thousands of students about a last-minute course offering or schedule change: We have applications that will make these outbound campaigns automatic, and then measurable once people have responded.

FierceVoIP: What do you see as the main benefit of the application bundle you are launching?

Limena: The way we test the usability, we do it in real world conditions. Many other times it's tested against IT managers, and that can lead to problems when people with out that knowledge base have to try to work out issues with them. Like I said, one phone call back to the carrier because a customer can't work out an issue costs the carrier three months of profitability, so we want to make sure there are easy solutions.

We want to make applications that are cost-efficient to the provider and easily applicable for end-users. I think we have a great product, because now, people need to move away from cost containment to think about productivity enhancement. The middle-level people at a business, sales, marketing, they're not thinking cut costs, they just want to do their job better, and I think we can help.

FierceVoIP: What do you think the next two to three years has in store for the VoIP industry?

Limena: Well, service providers generated something like $3.2 trillion in global revenue last year, but you know that's diminishing and customers are moving elsewhere because they realize it's about more than just voice now. So we need to take that huge demand that is there, and transform that business into something new. Any challenge presents opportunity, and I think you will see that delays are not acceptable, but the people who can deliver value-added services and think about how to do that reliably and with no delay will be very successful.

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Don't be a POTS! Innovate!

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:15:35 -0400

By Carl Ford

If free is dead, how can VoIP compete?

Next week in Chicago, I am going to present on the "Apps Gap." The point of the presentation is that VoIP does not deserve its current fate. Service providers are providing traditional phone options that makes it as if they're competing with one arm tied behind their back -- how do you show presence on a POTS line?

Or they try to gain space on a $1000 computer that was not bought to replace a $10 handset. Worse yet, soft phones put a handset look and feel on the PC to really eliminate any hope the user sees innovation beyond having one less set of buttons to punch.

Innovation is out there, but you have to go looking for it. The VON Coalition has found over 600 apps listed that they categorize as "Cool Tools" (the list is not yet public, but will be soon). And the range of applications is extremely diverse, from apps where presence rules, to Instant Messaging that includes voice, video and instant communication, as well as multi-modal to PSTN connectors that connect your phone to the web - inbound and outbound.

Cool tools include apps like the ability to:

Voice enable your email or text your voice mail, or you can voice enable your blogs.
Social network voice applications and tools for political activism.
Virtual assistants to reach you anywhere around the world.
Language translation applications to help you reach others or learn their language.
Voice enabled widgets that let you abstract your communication or avatars that abstract you.
Voice enabled games and animations and services that enable accessibility.
Mobile applications for your cell phone and communications for your cameras.
Productivity tools for conferencing and collaboration and (of course)
Convergence for business on the PBX.

So talk up VoIP apps.

Use them to get people involved and thinking. Don't let your family, your neighbor and especially your congressmen think that VoIP is just POTS over the Internet. Adopt an App today and tell me about it - carl@fiercemarkets.com.

The truth is, we are in a dangerous period of regulatory concern. With economies in trouble, more taxes look like salvation to states with deficits, and VoIP that looks like POTS with a POTS tax may spoil it for enhanced services everywhere.

Regulators are looking to impose taxes regardless of company revenues and may also require for VoIP services to be connected to emergency services or supplement the cost of emergency services - even if the application is not a primary service. And these issues are not just in the US, they are worldwide.

Why is a VoIP tax this important? To gain market awareness, many applications developers have given their product away. Some intend to stay free, others are being offered as free for a limited time. If the current regulatory mindset continues, it will cost too much to offer free apps.

Thursdays, I moderate a call on the Calliflower conferencing site with Jim Kohlenberger, Executive Director of the VON Coalition. Please stop by and join us as we try to keep the Internet a voice-enabled environment.

Carl Ford is Strategic Advisor and Community Developer for FierceMarkets. His words of wisdom can be found at www.carlford.net

Sylantro partners with Ribbit, hosts on Amazon

Pete Wylie — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:57:36 -0400

Sylantro Systems and BT-owned Ribbit announced a partnership Wednesday that will see Ribbit's Flash-based technology integrated with Sylantro's Synergy platform to create "rich voice applications." The combination of the two platforms will allow developers to create advanced Flash-based telephony applications that will offer simple, effective measuring and monetizing tools.

Sylantro also announced that it will join Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to offer the Synergy platform and Synapps web apps in the EC2 for developers who want to incorporate the rich voice and web apps within the resizable compute capacity environment of Amazon's cloud. In the Sylantro statement, the company claims accessing the Sylantro features through the cloud could significantly decrease cap ex for start-ups and incumbents alike.

Marco Limena, CEO of Sylantro, said more than 60 applications developed in Sylantro's Synapps "sandbox" will be displayed at this weeks Global Summit, a testimonial to the open API making it easy to work with third-party apps such as Ribbit.

"These applications offer a great deal of functionality, they are ready to be adopted for use immediately, and they can be adopted with a simple click-to-implement service," Limena said. "Traditionally, voice and other important technologies were views as vertical silos. Now, we must move away from that model toward integrated telephony platforms that provide productivity enhancement, not just cost containment."

Limena said the range of applications unveiled this week for purchase across the Sylantro carrier-grade service platform include health care, education and sales solutions that increase revenue and save money by optimizing communications with customers.

For more:
- view the joint Sylantro Ribbit release here

Raketu launches browser agnostic VoIP service

Pete Wylie — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:47:10 -0400

Raketu has announced a new service into its VoIP offerings Friday with the release of its RakOut WebPhone. The new service allows users to make a VoIP call to landline or mobile phones from any web browser; previously, users could only make a call from computers with Microsoft Windows. The service does not require a download, so calls can be made directly from Raketu's website.

Needless to say, this adds Raketu to the lengthly list of VoIP service providers that started with web clients, added dial-out capabilities and typically end up with unique phone numbers with a <something>In service.

Based out of New York City, Raketu hopes to lure business travelers with the accessibility and affordability of the service, in comparison to traditional phone services or mobile offerings.

For more
- Raketu hopes to RakOut to VoIP success.

iPhone gets VoIP stacks for apps

Pete Wylie — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:19:03 -0400

GIPS announced Monday it is enabling VoIP applications on the Apple iPhone with GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile. The software will allow developers to integrate voice elements into iPhone applications.

Dovid Coplon, director of product management, said that GIPS real-time VoIP enables such useful features as live in-game chat and implied that social networking and instant messaging applications could be augmented with the new technology.

"The iPhone is a very interesting platform, and we're excited about the enterprise uses as well as the more obvious gaming and instant messaging possibilities for VoiceEngine Mobile on iPhone," Coplon said. "It works well with our strategy, which is to leave our programs open for any application customers see fit."

Coplon had no comment on specific clients for VoiceEngine Mobile, but he alluded that negotiations were underway with some large accounts.

VoiceEngine Mobile will turn voice into IP packets that can easily be transmitted through WiFi, making it easier for applications developers to come to market quickly with integrated VoIP applications, according to a GIPS press release.

Coplon acknowledged that there are many competitors in the VoIP software for iPhone market, such as Russian firm SPIRIT DSP, which also announced an iPhone VoIP platform Monday, TeamSpirit 3.0 VoiceEngine Mobile. But he also noted that GIPS's iLBC codec, a narrowband speech algorithm standard designed to optimize calls made over the Internet, is already embedded in the iPhone, providing a platform for developers seeking to leverage the iPhone's WiFi capabilities. He said he did not see similar adoption rates from competitors.

"GIPS's online products have been downloaded more than 800 million times," Coplon said. "I think we compete very well, and I don't see anyone stepping up to the plate across multiple platforms like GIPS has."

For more:
-Here is a link to the GIPS press release.
-SPIRIT DSP's iPhone VoIP press release.

Introducing Telco 2.0 - A Business Primer

Doug Mohney — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:17:26 -0400

By Thomas Howe

Name a Web 2.0 business model that doesn't depend on advertising. Anyone? Beuler? We may all be forgiven when we fail to name a second business model, as the success of Google, Facebook and MySpace drive both investors and customers into such a frenzy that countless startups are funded with no other value proposition than to be able to aggregate large amounts of subscribers such that one day ... we could advertise to them.

For those who struggle with naming a second model, I would like to introduce Telco 2.0. In the first of a two part series, I want to put forward the unique business proposition Telco 2.0 offers and how it differs from everything that went before it.

From a business perspective, three points are important to understanding why Telco 2.0 is such an interesting place to invest money, time and attention. Telco 2.0 refers to telecom software and services that sit "over the top" of other services such as the Internet, the PSTN and mobile networks. These applications interface with the networks below them to provide services, and use the Intranet as the way subscribers are attracted and acquired, and as the way subscribers manage their services.

As a direct result of this approach, Telco 2.0 has three identifiable business advantages over the last generation of telecom application deployments:

1) Telco 2.0 applications do not require massive investment into infrastructure, as they ride "on top of" other networks. Telco 2.0 applications connect to these networks through Web Services APIs, which are paid by the transaction and avoid investment into "big iron" approaches. A decade ago, multi-million dollar investments into hardware to support a new service was a common requirement. With voice APIs, the only requirement to support my development is a credit card with a hundred dollar credit limit.
2) Telco 2.0 applications can be successful with a small handful of customers. Since massive investment is unnecessary to develop the application, insanely large revenue targets are unnecessary. Since the service runs on top of the existing world-wide Internet and PSTN networks, everybody with a connection to the legacy networks can sign up for the Telco 2.0 service. In essence, exactly like a web site, you can deploy your application to the world with a single click, and exactly like a web site, you only need to capture a very small piece of the pie.
3) Since a small number of subscribers can make a service successful, Telco 2.0 applications can be extremely targeted, extremely narrow and extremely valuable to those who need them. The direct result of this is that Telco 2.0 applications can charge significantly more than traditional services, more than making up for whatever inefficiencies may arise from designs that ride on top of another's network.

As I meet and speak to those outside the telecom world, I often see the eyes glaze and the disdain rise when I mention "operators" and "carriers." Just like good business models, respect for traditional carriers is sometimes hard to find. My only response is simple: Name any other industry that has convinced every adult on the planet to give them $30 a month for a completely renewable resource. (In fact, isn't that the real problem? It's too renewable?) I believe that there's more than one way Telco 2.0 will flatten the traditional telecom market, and that's really going to be impressive.

Now, other than the advertising industry, name an industry so poised to take advantage of what Web 2.0 has to offer, and if you do, I'll ready my resume tonight.

My bet is that I'm going to bed early.

Thomas Howe is a long-time telecom consultant, writer, and speaker who is the CEO of the Thomas Howe Company, providing expertise in improving the business process with real-time communications. His website is at http://www.thomashowe.com