Unison Overcomes Economy with Free IP PBX

With the current economic situation as it is — and whether you believe this recession will last only through the beginning of 2009, as does 8x8 Chairman Bryan Martin (News - Alert), or will last well into the second half of the year or even longer — every company is looking to cut costs. Many have already announced massive layoffs; others have put off planned investments in technology, hoping to make do with what they currently have; and some have revised plans, seeking more cost effective solutions to their communications needs.

 

But there is one solution that trumps all others from a cost perspective: free.

 

While the Microsofts, Ciscos, and Avayas of the world are not in any real danger — they have a strong foothold in the space; and while other, smaller equipment and solution vendors are touting their alternatives as being significantly less expensive to deploy, one company has announced a Unified Communications solution that will, at the very least, cause many businesses to take a look.

 

Unison Technologies is offering Unison, which it claims is the world’s first free UC solution. Users will have to deal with sponsored advertising, since the “free” version is based on an advertising model — after all, nothing is really free, is it? Still, what Unison brings to light is the evolution of the communication space, which is now largely a software-based industry.

 

“Microsoft’s CEO said last year that his two greatest challenges are Linux and ad-supported software,” said Rurik Bradbury, Unison’s Chief Marketing Officer.  “Unison is both of these.”

The SIP-based Unison UC server integrates email, IM, IP PBX (News - Alert), calendar server, and LDAP directory capabilities into a single application. In addition to the basic cost benefit, this makes administration significantly easier, with all components on a single server, managed through the Unison Control Panel.

 

The call center-class IP PBX features all of the capabilities of most popular systems today: auto attendant, call control features, presence, call recording, ACD, call queues, voice mail, analog and IP phone support, mobility, unlimited extensions and DIDs, intelligent call routing, and more.

 

“This represents a new era for the software industry — and a direct challenge to the traditional model of overpriced software,” said Michael Choupak (News - Alert), CEO of Unison Technologies. “As the first sponsor-supported free business software, Unison gives businesses the combined power of applications like Microsoft Exchange and a Cisco PBX — but at zero cost.”

 

Adding to its flexibility is its open architecture and a back end enabled for SOA, enabling easy integration with other popular applications, such as CRM platforms. The end user software, Unison Desktop, runs on either Windows or Linux. Unison says its software is compatible with any SIP-based phones and adaptors, including Cisco, Nortel (News - Alert), Avaya, Grandstream, and others.

 

Unison could hardly have picked a better time to introduce its free, ad-supported UC solution. With its feature set and scalability, it is likely to win more than a little interest from businesses small and large looking to deploy Unified Communications solutions. Whether it can mount a serious challenge to the major communications market incumbents remains to be seen, but the word “free” is more compelling than any other when it comes to making a business case for new technology. The SMB market, in particular, is likely to take a hard look at this new alternative.

 

Of course, Unison also offers a fee-based alternative, for those looking to gain the benefits of the solution without the distraction of sponsors’ ads. The same software is available for a modest annual cost of $50 per user, or a one-time $36,000 payment for unlimited users. When you compare that to the more then $100,000 a 50-seat business will pay for a Microsoft solution (according to Ferris Research), that’s cost savings enough.