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Open Source Pioneer Larry Augustin Joins Fonality's Board of DirectorsIndustry Veteran to Help Guide Corporate Strategy in Open Source Asterisk IP Telephony Market
LOS ANGELES – January 26, 2006 – Fonality, the leader in affordable IP-PBX systems for small businesses, today announced that Open Source pioneer Larry Augustin has joined its board of directors and will assist the company with its corporate strategy in the Open Source IP telephony market. Fonality’s PBXtra IP-PBX is based on the Open Source Asterisk platform and, since it began shipping in October 2004, has placed millions of calls and has been deployed by hundreds of businesses with thousands of lines. “Fonality has cracked the code on leveraging Open Source technology into the walled gardens of the telephony market,” said Augustin. “Their team had a vision to create small business telephony solutions with a feature-to-dollar ratio that is going to be hard to beat. PBXtra’s success to date proves that Fonality is well on its way to market leadership.” Larry Augustin is the founder of VA Linux (now VA Software), where he served as CEO and led the company to a position of industry leadership. Worth Magazine named him one of the Top 50 CEOs in 2000. At VA Linux, he created SourceForge.net, the world's largest Open Source software development community with over half a million users, and its commercial version, SourceForge Enterprise Edition, used to manage software development in large enterprises. Also at VA, he acquired Andover.net, merging SourceForge.net, Linux.com, Slashdot, and other well-known Open Source Internet sites to form the Open Source Development Network (OSDN). Augustin currently serves on the boards of directors of VA Software Corporation (as Chairman), Open Source Development Lab (OSDL), JBoss, SugarCRM, Medsphere and Pentaho. He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. “I am thrilled to have Larry join our board,” said Chris Lyman, Fonality’s founder and CEO. “His expertise in growing successful Open Source companies and knowledge of the dynamics involved in creating a profitable company based on Open Source technology will be invaluable to me and my team.” Fonality’s PBXtra product line provides today’s businesses with an enterprise-class phone system for 40-80 percent less than the cost of traditional solutions. PBXtra provides enterprise-class features such as telecommuting, branch office support, voicemail-to-email, click-to-call, VoIP, softphones, support for IP and analog phones, and advanced call center functionality. The PBXtra software runs on standard PC hardware and uses layers of Open Source Linux and Asterisk technology to provide the least expensive option for small businesses deploying new IP-PBX phone systems. PBXtra is available from Fonality or through a Fonality reseller. Pricing starts at $995 for the PBXtra Standard Edition server with unlimited licenses, or $2,935 with ten phones. PBXtra’s Call Center Edition, which allows for distributed call centers, is $1,995. For more information about PBXtra or becoming a Fonality reseller, visit www.fonality.com. About Fonality Fonality is the leading provider of affordable IP-PBX systems for small businesses. PBXtra Standard Edition delivers all the advanced features of an enterprise-class phone system at an affordable price, and is so easy to use that it eliminates expensive phone support and configuration costs. PBXtra Call Center Edition provides businesses with call center functionality in addition to the PBX capabilities found in Standard Edition. PBXtra has placed millions of calls and is deployed to thousands of business users in the U.S. and other countries. Fonality’s products are available direct and through a network of more than 800 resellers. FOR MORE INFORMATION: Susan Spencer Spencer Communications (310) 543-9121 [email protected] |