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Internet Telephony: December 21, 2009 eNewsLetter
December 21, 2009

VoIP Gateways Provider Looks Back at 2009: Interview

By Stefania Viscusi, Assignment Desk Editor

Sangoma, a Toronto, Canada-based VoIP gateways provider offers data cards, voice cards, gateways and connectivity software for use in leading PBX (News - Alert), IVR, contact center and data-communication applications throughout the world.



 
The company’s VoIP gateways can be seamlessly integrated and are easily scalable in any architecture - so developers have the tools needed to create cost-effective, powerful, and flexible solutions.

According to Serge Forest (News - Alert), vice president of Marketing for Sangoma, the company’s mission is to make software-based communication applications run more efficiently and more cost effectively.
 
Forest told TMCnet in an interview that in 2010, the company will introduce new product and marketing initiatives in a bid to drive its mission forward and follow-up on over 25 years corporate history.
 
To find out more about the company’s plans for 2010, and their thoughts on the past year, I took some time to chat with Forest. Our exchange follows:


 
 
Looking back at 2009, can you highlight some of the most important advancements or trends that emerged in the market you serve?  What were the key trends that impacted your business?
 
The continued demand for cost effective telecommunications systems and services was an obvious trend of 2009. In the midst of the economic slowdown, businesses had even more pressure to reduce their operating costs, and this favors technologies that lower the price of communication equipment and operations.
 
We also saw significant improvements in the maturity of the open source telephony market. This was demonstrated by the following:
 
- Deployment of very large-scale solutions based on OST
- A large increase in the number of commercial offerings using OST as a base platform as PBX, IVR, UC or Call Center product suites
- The industry and community alike embraced the FreeSWITCH project as a viable alternative to projects based on Asterisk (News - Alert)
 
Finally, we saw increased demand in the contact center to make operations more efficient, not just lower cost. It seems that driving the utmost efficiency out of agents who drive business has once again risen in priority.
 
What were your company’s biggest achievements/ announcements in the past year?
 
There were several advancements for the company in 2009.
 
On the product side, we launched the award-winning NetBorder Express Gateway 2.0 on Windows and then on Linux. We also launched a series of industry-leading hybrid telephony cards - the B700 and the B601 - which mix analog and digital telephony interfaces in a single, compact card. We also delivered a clustering solution for our SS7 interface software.
 
For the PBX market, we’ve had a terrific year gaining several new PBX application partners including Aastra, Cudatel – which is a subsidiary of Barracuda Networks (News - Alert) working in conjunction with FreeSWITCH, pbxnsip, Fonicatec, Dialexia, Brekeke, and more. In addition to numerous existing PBX applications that have had Sangoma integrated into their products for a long time. We’ve also gained major OEMs in the Windows-based UC space that will hit the market in 2010 and beyond.

In the contact center market, we’ve leveraged the Paraxip product line form the 2008 acquisition to gain several design wins in open source-based Contact Centers, notably through our partnership with Vicidial. We’ve also gained several landmark contact center operations through the Paraxip channels, one of which we publicly announced recently: Teleperformance.

And finally, Sangoma announced several new distribution and reselling relationships in developing economies including Brazil, Eastern Europe, the Balkans.
 
Looking back at 2009, how would you characterize the year for your company?
 
For Sangoma, 2009 was a year of positioning ourselves for future growth. Unlike many companies in our industry, we have in fact increased our investments in R&D and in marketing during the year. We have also won several key OEMs and application partners that are set to rebound as the economy recovers. We’ve also worked very hard to complete the integration of the Paraxip staff and product portfolio under the Sangoma structure, providing a more complete offering and a wider addressable market.
 
2009 was also a turning point in our approach to marketing and selling. We have embraced a “solutions” approach, supporting and leaving more space for our numerous application partners – a trend that we believe will continue in the following years.
 
 
We started this year in an economic recession, it seems like were now pulling out of that, what are your thoughts?
 
It certainly looks like the worst in behind us. As we are seeing the size and scope of our partner’s projects, we feel confident that we are slowly beginning the overall recovery. That being said, everyone is still very cautious and we will certainly continue to focus on providing the cost effectiveness and efficiency improvements that our partners need to be successful.
 
What are you planning for 2010?
 
Sangoma’s mission is to make software-based communication applications run more efficiently and more cost effectively. In 2010, look for several product and marketing initiatives to drive this mission forward and follow-up on our 25+ years corporate history.
Also, look for a new significant release of the NetBorder product line, with emphasis on international features, performance, security, as well as interoperability with new applications as well as new products to be released that will address IP-only configurations.
2010 also promises to be a very exciting year for our partners in the contact center, UC and OST space. Look for several announcements and events throughout the year.
 
Sangoma will kickoff the 2010 events at ITEXPO (News - Alert) East in Miami in January where we will host several of our application partners in our booth, and display a wide array of IP telephony applications built on Sangoma.
 
ITEXPO East 2010 is taking place in Miami, Florida, January 20-22. In addition to an exhibit hall full of products and solutions to support your open source or proprietary telephony platforms, ITEXPO features conference sessions and collocated events to capture the attention of every enterprise, SMB, service provider, reseller, and developer across the globe. Sangoma, a Gold Sponsor of ITEXPO, can be found in Booth #601.
 

Stefania Viscusi is an assignment editor for TMCnet, covering voice and Voice over IP technologies. She also oversees production of TMCnet's e-Newsletters in the areas of Internet telephony and speech technology. To read more of Stefania's articles, please visit her columnist page.

(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/voip-gateways/articles/71372-voip-gateways-provider-looks-back-2009-interview.htm)








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