Systems integrators are a key channel partner target these days for eZuce, John Drolet, vice president of channel operations at the open source software company, told TMCnet today at ITEXPO (News - Alert) Austin in Austin, Texas.

The company has 30 existing U.S. channel partners, but it aims to bring that up to around 100 channel partners over time, he says.

Value-added resellers have helped eZuce bring its software to the small and medium business market. But because eZuce products are standards-based and can work with multiple other solutions, some VARs are challenged to make as much money with its solutions as they can with competing proprietary offerings for which customers have to purchase multiple pieces from the same vendor, he says.

So eZuce is working to expand its base of partners on the systems integrator front. Drolet says systems integrators are surrounding the eZuce solution with things like application integration, desktop management, help desk and system engineering.

Drolet runs eZuce channel operations in North and South America. Company founders Martin Steinmann (News - Alert), eZuce’s CEO, and Jerry Stabile, COO, and senior vice president of sales and marketing, are working to expand the company’s business in Europe, where the company already has operations in Germany and Romania.

Large enterprise is the key target for eZuce, whose solutions can be used in on-premises, or in public or private cloud deployments. The company has been especially successful with organizations in the education, high tech and retail verticals, Drolet says. Colorado State, Cedarville University, and Lafayette College are among its customers in the education vertical. High tech company Red Hat, also an open source company, is among eZuce’s customers. A major online retailer also leverages the eZuce solution.

“eZuce is a software-only solution that is standards based, and because we’re software only we can deploy in multiple cloud environments instantly, and I think that’s what customers are looking for,” says Drolet, adding that there are half a million users of the SIPfoundry (News - Alert) code on which eZuce’s solution is based.

As discussed in the October 2010 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, a TMC (News - Alert) publication, Steinmann and Stabile previously established SIPfoundry.  They then went on to start eZuce in February of 2010. As they mentioned during the interview with INTERNET TELEPHONY, eZuce was established to deliver and support a complete solution that replaces legacy PBXs like Nortel CS-1000s, Meridian-1, Aura products and Cisco (News - Alert) CallManager. The eZuce offering, which in addition to telephony addresses video, instant messaging and presence, also competes with Microsoft solutions.

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