Customer wins include [...]]]>

Digium (www.digium.com) has been talking up its Switchbox product in the education markets, both K-12 and higher education.  The laundry list of customer wins is interesting, but it took a couple of queries to get an answer as to how many extensions you could support on a campus (Answer: A lot).

Customer wins include The Earth Institute, Columbia University (New York, N.Y.), Summit Public Schools (Redwood City, Calif.), University of Puerto Rico (San Juan, P.R.), and Southeast Kansas Education Service Center (Topeka, Kan.)

Since I used to work at a couple of Universities back in the day, I asked just how many extensions could be supported.  

A single Switchvox system can support up to 400 users today.  But you can gang multiple Switchvox systems together to support thousands of users in a large campus environment – something which is very cool and interesting.  

Digium says some campuses are deploying fewer phones in each dorm building; makes sense since students now come with cell phones.  Often, an individual department will upgrade the existing phone system to VoIP for UC features and use Switchvox to talk to the rest of the campus phone system.

There’s an interesting case study at: http://www.digium.com/en/company/casestudies/viewcasestudies/ucsd  for the Union County School District of Georgia.  There’s a multi-site Switchvox solution supporting over 230 IP phones, with a Switchvox server (“appliance”) at each of the five schools and the district office.

"Digium is evaluating the public response and usage of the iPhone and BlackBerry Apps, and based on these results we’ll determine if and when [...]]]>

I hate to take Digium (www.digium.com) out to the woodshed, but this is the response I got when I asked about the potential for a Switchvox mobile client for Android.

"Digium is evaluating the public response and usage of the iPhone and BlackBerry Apps, and based on these results we’ll determine if and when we should develop a version for Android or any other platforms and if the current functionality should be refined or changed."

*sigh* Serious corporate-speak and not the sort of thing I would have expected to see out of them.

The Switchvox Mobileapps are connected to an employee’s phone extension so when mobile workers make a [...]]]>

Digium (www.digium.com) has announced the availability of Switchvox Mobile applications for iPhone and Blackbeery.  The freely downloadable apps integrate with the Switchvox VoIP/UC solution to bring “advanced UC” functionality to users when they are away from the office.

The Switchvox Mobileapps are connected to an employee’s phone extension so when mobile workers make a business call through Switchvox mobile, the call appears to be from their work phone rather than their mobile (Personal) phone, and billing can be handled like any other call made from the office.

Mobile workers can place a call through Switchvox mobile by selecting a name from the company directory, dial the employee’s extension from the keypad, or return calls from the Voicemail and Call Log tools.

Other key features thrown in include the ability to control voicemail greetings, access the full company directory, view missed calls, check voicemail, and easily return call via smartphone. Users can also set call rules while away from the office.

Switchvox Mobile for iPhone is free of charge and available now through the iTunes App Store. It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Switchvox Mobile for the BlackBerry is free of charge and available now through BlackBerry App World. It is compatible with the Bold, Curve, Pearl, Storm, and Tour models.

Switchvox SMB 4.5 adds on Phone Feature Packs for Polycom handsets, enabling users to directly access things such as call recording, visual voicemail, a searchable company directory and call parking lots directly [...]]]>

Yes Virginia, there was more than the Digium AsteriskExchange store announcement at IT EXPO last week.  Digium also announced Switchvox SMB 4.5.

Switchvox SMB 4.5 adds on Phone Feature Packs for Polycom handsets, enabling users to directly access things such as call recording, visual voicemail, a searchable company directory and call parking lots directly on a Polycom handset, something that has made Polycom very happy.

New features beyond the Phone Feature Packs include support for distinctive ringtones for different types of calls, extension failover to a backup Switchvox SMB server, support for multiple extensions on a single hand set.  Also included in Switchbox SMB 4.5 are support for user profiles to provide caller information such as photo, extension, title and location; flexible language support in English, UK English, Italian, Castilian Spanish and LatAm Spanish, including sound packs including audio prompts.

Network junkies will appreciate Digium adding SNMP for monitoring into Switchvox 4.5.

Current Switchvox owners with a software subscription get SMB 4.5 free of charge while Phone Feature Packs are available for $30 per phone.

The Dialogic Exchange Network (DEN) and the Dialogic Innovator Award [Yours truly as one of the award judges] were launched in late April.  DEN is an [...]]]>

Dialogic and Digium have recently launched online communities to stimulate applications development for their respective products.   Digium is providing code, while Dialogic is offering prizes for new apps.

The Dialogic Exchange Network (DEN) and the Dialogic Innovator Award [Yours truly as one of the award judges] were launched in late April.  DEN is an online social networking community for customers, developers, Dialogic employees and others to connect, share ideas, learn about industry trends, and do the whole forum thing.

If you get a good idea from DEN for developing a new application, the Dialogic Innovator Award Contest awaits.  The most innovative application built using Dialogic components gets a free one-year service and support contact, $5000 credit to a future purchase of Dialogic products, t-shirts, press releases, and a joint marketing opportunity with the company.

Over at Digium, Switchvox Developer Central was launched last week. The website provides a wiki containing documentation for the Switchvox Extend API, a forum for discussions, a blog for the Digium engineering team, and tools for development and testing.

The big deal out of this is the exposure of the Switchvox Extend API. Third-party developers (i.e. either the do-it-yourself admin or a VAR/system integrator) can now go integrate their phone system with a custom web app.  It opens up a world of Switchvox-tailored vertical applications and ad hoc mashups.