Application :: VoIP Biz-News.com

Number of results 33 for application

01/10/2009 - Google Wave: A beta tester's perspective

Google officially rolled out its 100,000-strong beta test of its Google Wave collaboration/email hybrid product and response was so strong, people posted their invites on eBay and received hundreds of bids to get into the test. Application vendors SAI and Salesforce.com also jumped on the announcement, as they released their individual plans to develop plug-ins for the Wave platform.

Ed Laczynski, CTO of L-Tech, a Google partner, and a beta user of Wave, said in an interview he's impressed with the performance so far.

"The gadgets are really cool, and fact that you can watch people respond in real time is also nice," Laczynski said. "Google borrowed from everything ‘Web 2.0' in Wave, and also solved a big problem with Gmail around collaboration. You just want to communicate, but now you have to pick the medium for different types of communication. Wave let's you get a quick answer without having to choose."

Laczynski said he expects developers to begin right away designing customer support for enterprise users and CRM applications for Wave. He said his company "has gadgets and robots in the works right now for the product." He cautioned that Wave's complexity and multiple use cases might actually prove to be a detriment as in targeting consumers, however.

"It's a complicated product, and it appeals to technical people, but taking it out to consumers, the messaging needs to be more simple," he said. "There is so much that it can do, but past 100,000 users, if you want grandma to use it, Google needs a clear adoption path and to be able to communicate why people would want to use it."

21/09/2009 - Nortel Carrier VoIP still strong despite the company's Chaper 11 status

Nortel's Carrier VoIP and Application Server (CVAS) division is "still very much alive and kicking" despite the parent company's ongoing bankruptcy procedure, according to Sita Lowman, leader of marketing for the group.

"Our part of the organization is still number 1 in the world, even while under Chapter 11," Lowman said. "We haven't stopped anything under R&D, and we're ready for the divestiture to be behind us, so that we can provide the confidence to the customer," Lowman said. She added that Nortel CVAS would be launching new products at Supercomm in October, as the unit prepares to be auctioned like Nortel's wireless technology and Enterprise Solutions divisions.

How much will Nortel get for the CVAS group?

17/09/2009 - Cavalier upgrading network with MetaSwitch gear

MetaSwitch has begun another significant carrier customer rollout, as it is assisting operator Cavalier as it upgrades its network with media gateways and application server deployments, according to the companies. Cavalier is offering hosted VoIP and other IP communications technology to the SMB market in its Mid-Atlantic market, including areas in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to Senior Vice President of Marketing Lou Sommi.

Sommi said in an interview that the MetaSwitch gear allows for flexibility in deployments and is helping Cavalier sell more hosted offerings, which Sommi said are lucrative for the company and allow Cavalier's sales staff to sell to smaller clients. Sommi said the unified communications features made possible by the MetaSwitch platform have been very popular with SMBs, as they can now support mobile workers and enable advanced emergency continuity procedures, functions not possible with legacy TDM gear.

For more:
- see the press release here

16/09/2009 - InStat sees $32.2B mobile VoIP app revs in 2013

In-Stat has released a report that is very bullish on the future revenue potential of mobile VoIP applications, predicting the annual revenues for the market will increase to $32.2 billion by 2013. The report, "Mobile VoIP - Transforming the Future of Wireless Voice," also predicts 278 million registered users of mobile VoIP applications by 2013.

If In-Stat's revenue estimate is to hold, however, these applications would not only have to meet the user base prediction but generate monthly ARPU of $9.65, not an easy feat with voice becoming increasingly commoditized.

"Applications such as Skype and Vonage have influenced users to think of voice as a data application," says Frank Dickson, In-Stat analyst, in a release. "The increasing penetration of Wi-Fi in mobile devices was the beach head that Mobile VoIP applications needed. As user habits are being shaped by rich on-line communication experiences, mobile carriers control over devices and data applications is waning. Mobile carrier attempts to slow the spread of on-line Mobile VoIP are proving challenging as well."

The report predicts that Asia will overtake EMEA as the regional leader in mobile VoIP revenues by 2013.

For more:
- see the press release on Reuters here

27/08/2009 - Carrier VoIP revs down 32% in Q2

A new Infonetics research report on second-quarter carrier VoIP spending shows some signs of life for the industry, which has been battered due to reduced carrier capex amid the recession. Global carrier VoIP equipment revenues totaled $598 million in Q2, and while the market segment revenues were off 32 percent year-over-year, they did show slight improvement of 0.8 percent from Q1.

Diane Myers, author of the report and directing analyst for carrier VoIP for Infonetics, said voice application servers, media gateways and Class 5 softswitches were the strongest equipment categories for the quarter, while EMEA and North America showed the best regional sales performance.

The report said AudioCodes, Cisco, MetaSwitch, Sonus, Alca-Lu, Italtel, Broadsoft, and Nortel (hard to believe, but true) stood out with strong revenue increases for the quarter.

For more:
- see the report press release here

10/08/2009 - Report: Carrier IP telephony market off 14% in 2009

Analyst firm Dell'Oro Group sees the carrier IP Telephony market breaking out of its current slump in 2010, according to a recent report. While the group said the carrier IP telephony market in 2009 will be down around 14 percent from 2008, Dell'Oro expects the market to rebound to $4 billion by 2013.

Greg Collins, a vice president at Dell'Oro Group, said network modernization projects delayed due to rough economic conditions should resume in earnest in 2010, driving growth in the session border controller and softswitch markets.

"Smaller vendors, such as Acme Packet, MetaSwtich, and BroadSoft, have done fairly through the downturn," Collins said. "The bigger vendors with lots of exposure to the Tier 1 carriers, such as Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel and Sonus, have suffered a little more as a result."

As part of the report, Dell'Oro also forecast that the IMS equipment market, though currently quite small, will expand rapidly to reach $743 million in revenues by 2013. Collins said preparations for LTE wireless, application delivery and location services will drive the expansion in this market niche.

For more:
- see the press release here

02/07/2009 - GENBAND and BroadSoft Offer Legacy Switch Migration Solution

VoIP applications provider Broadsoft and IP infrastructure solutions developer GENBAND have announced a new set of solutions that enable carriers to upgrade their networks while supporting legacy features.
The two companies have integrated GENBAND's gateways with BroadSoft's suite of hosted telephony and multimedia applications.

01/07/2009 - BroadSoft and GENBAND integrate products for carriers

GENBAND and BroadSoft announced GENBAND's G9 and G6 gateways and S3 session border controller will be integrated with BroadSoft's BroadWorks VoIP application platform for carriers migrating from TDM to IP telephony systems. The companies said the new offering will allow carriers to deliver Class 4 and 5 VoIP services and applications on a single system, all while continuing to support legacy features.

The new offering also provides options to carriers like hosted unified communications and fixed-mobile convergence support, according to the companies.

For more:
- see the Light Reading article here

29/06/2009 - BroadSoft-Sylantro: 6 months later

BroadSoft's December 2008 acquisition of fellow VoIP application server company Sylantro gave BroadSoft an even more commanding lead in market share in the space. But integrating another unique company into the buyer's corporate culture can be quite a challenge, so, six months after the formal announcement, here's a look at how the integration has progressed.

In the first quarter, BroadSoft's executive team spent a lot of time on the road talking with Sylantro and BroadSoft customers alike about the implications of the buy, according to Leslie Ferry, vice president of marketing for BroadSoft. But Ferry said the integration of the back office systems and personnel is now complete, and BroadSoft's customers have benefited from the product set and engineering muscle BroadSoft picked up from Sylantro.

"The integration of talent has gone incredibly smoothly, and we knew from due diligence and competing with them that they had a good product and smart, talented people working on it," Ferry said. "It's always a challenge when you integrate two companies, but we've been more than pleased with the results."

Ferry said the integration went smoothly because Sylantro had a similar culture of innovation and research. She also noted that "getting out the message" to Sylantro customers about the level of support they would receive from BroadSoft was the major challenge in the integration.

Ferry said portions of Sylantro's Synergy platform are being integrated into the BroadWorks offering, and portions of Sylantro's web-based client SynApps are also being evaluated for eventual inclusion in BroadSoft's products.

25/06/2009 - Toshiba announces bundled UC product

Toshiba America Information Systems, a wholly-owned Toshiba subsidiary, announced the availability of a bundled unified communications product that ships in a single software load and runs on one server. Toshiba's Unified Communications Suite bundles the usual UC suspects such as presence, IM, click-to-call in applications, find-me follow-me dialing and FMC utility, and the applications all run over Toshiba's Media Application Server.

Toshiba Information Systems said the UC bundle will deliver cost savings and productivity gains to enterprises, while the single software load will keep installation simple. The product is immediately available through Toshiba resellers nationwide.

A recent report on unified communications deployments and market share by Synergy Research Group said Toshiba was struggling in addressing significant industry issues and maintaining market share in this area. Perhaps the new bundled offering can help the company increase traction in this segment.

For more:
- see the press release here
- see the Synergy report here

22/06/2009 - Ericsson to deploy VoIP application server for O2 Germany

Ericsson was selected to deploy an IMS core system with an IMS-based VoIP application server for Telefonica O2 Germany, the companies announced in a release. The deal includes Ericsson hardware deployment and software integration.

The IMS update will allow SIP trunking, IP Centrex and presence for both fixed and mobile users of O2 Germany's network. IMS technology lowers the cost of application delivery for businesses and will help companies continue to move toward network convergence, according to the release.

For more:
- see the press release here

Related article
Ericsson is a leading IMS equipment maker

18/06/2009 - NetIQ to monitor MTS Allstream UC deployments

MTS Allstream, a Canadian provider of unified communications solutions, announced it has selected NetIQ to manage its enterprise UC applications and infrastructure. With the addition of MTS Allstream's customers, NetIQ now manages more than 1 million VoIP lines worldwide, according to the company.

MTS Allstream will deploy NetIQ's AppManager for network assessment, end-to-end monitoring and reporting on MTS Allstream customer UC deployments, according to the release.

For more:
- see the joint press release here

10/06/2009 - Sales of UC desktop units slip in Q1

A new Synergy Research Group report on the global market for collaborative applications found vendor sales down across the board for the first quarter of 2009 in both the enterprise and SMB market segments. The report said collaboration application vendors notched sales of $913.3 million for the first quarter. Avaya, Cisco and Siemens were the top three vendors in the enterprise category, and ShoreTel, Cisco and Avaya lead the SMB category.

Though Synergy said these companies were in a strong strategic position in their respective markets, the report also found that the top six vendors in both segments saw quarter-over-quarter sales declines. The report also noted a growing interest in managed UC offerings as small business suffer decreased credit availability, and it reported that price points for UC offerings are declining slowly as competition in the space increases.

For more:
- see the Synergy press release here

09/06/2009 - VoIP Equipment Sales Plummet, IMS Revenues Grow

VoIP equipment purchases are decreasing at the expense of spending on the deployment of IMS (IP multimedia subsystem) technology, according to Infonetics Research.
Worldwide sales of IMS equipment, including HSS (home subscriber servers), CSCF servers, and voice application servers, are forecast to jump 74 per cent in 2009 over 2008.

09/06/2009 - SabSe Acquires Jaxtr, VoIP Consolidation Begins?

SabSe Technologies has acquired jaxtr, a social communications company offering a free VoIP service.
The value-added application provider aims to sell its apps to Jaxtr's large active user base of around 10 million users.

09/06/2009 - jaxtr bought by SabSe Technologies

Value-added application provider SabSe Technologies announced it has purchased jaxtr, a company offering free VoIP service to social networks and blogging platforms. Terms of the deal were not released, but based on jaxtr's staff reductions and several large funding rounds totaling more than $26 million, it's not likely jaxtr's venture capital investors reaped a profit on this play.

SabSe will continue to operate the jaxtr service under the brand name, and the buyer hopes to increase revenue by selling its applications through to jaxtr's more than 10 million users. SabSe, cofounded by Hotmail cofounder Sabeer Bhatia, plans also to use the jaxtr acquisition to bring additional functionality to SabSe's core small business offerings.

The Natural Convergence buy of NewStep Networks yesterday and the jaxtr deal today could signal the beginning of consolidation in the VoIP space, as companies that took down large amounts of VC funds without clear business models falter and require sale.

For more:
- see the press release here

01/06/2009 - Blue Coat survey finds increasing interest in video conferencing

As enterprises seek to bring down costs during the current economic downturn, video conferencing has gained popularity as a way to reduce travel expenses while maintaining mission critical communications. But network capacity and bandwidth must be considered before ramping up video conferencing use, or spotty performance could negate any savings and derail crucial meetings.

Blue Coat Systems, an application delivery specialist, said more than 73 percent of enterprises plan to shift focus to video conferencing to lower travel budgets, according to a survey the company sponsored. Blue Coat is touting its PacketShaper appliance as a solution to address concerns about the network effect of increased video conferencing

"Companies need to know the impact of introducing a new application like video conferencing into a distributed network," said Mark Urban, senior product manager for Blue Coat Systems. "PacketShaper allows them to exert granular control over individual applications, carve out and protect bandwidth for scheduled video conferences, and proactively remedy latency problems that may occur."

Blue Coat said PacketShaper uses advanced compression techniques to reduce bandwidth requirements for video conferencing sessions, including header compression and packet packing.

For more:
- see the press release here

Related article
Blue Coat acquires Packeteer for $268 million

28/05/2009 - Voxeo buys IMified

Voxeo, a unified communications service provider, announced it acquired IMified, a hosted instant messaging application platform. Terms of the transaction were not released.

IMified is Voxeo's third acquisition in the past 12 months, and it gives Voxeo a platform API to communicate with any IM network or platform, according to the company. The IMified platform lets users build new IM applications without having to worry about interoperability with other proprietary IM solutions, and it also allows for IM functionality to be added to other, existing applications.

IMified claims that more than 7,500 developers currently use its platform for IM customer service bots, package tracking, emergency notifications and customer surveys, among other uses.

"Instant messaging is a natural extension to voice self-service and is an important piece of any company's unified communication strategy," said Jonathan Taylor, Voxeo's president and CEO, in a prepared statement. "IMified significantly expands Voxeo's unified communications offerings with the world's largest IM application platform and most experienced development team."

Voxeo said all IMified employees have been retained and that it will not modify terms of service for IMified users or developers.

For more:
- see the press release here

Related articles
Voxeo buys VoiceObjects
Voxeo Reaches into Asia

22/05/2009 - Yuuguu Extends Instant Collaboration To Include Skype

Yuuguu has expanded its screen sharing cross network application to include Skype.
The Yuuguu for Skype Beta enables Skype users to screen share and collaborate with one or more contacts.

18/05/2009 - Ifbyphone gets first carrier customer for SIP applications offering

Ifbyphone announced its first carrier customer for its "cloud telephony" SIP application service. Network Communications, a CLEC based in Longview, Texas, will connect to Ifbyphone's servers though SIP trunking, which the companies said will allow Network Communications to offer telephony applications such as "find me" call forwarding, call tracking and IVR to its enterprise customers.

"Ifbyphone offers a tremendous set of telephone automation services that are easy for SMB (small- to medium-sized business) customers to deploy and use, and they offered us a flexible pricing model that was very attractive," Gary Honeycutt, director of network operations at Network Communications, said in a release. "We have already begun selling the new services to our SMB customers under our brand, and our customers are delighted."

The deal comes less than a month after Ifbyphone announced the availability of the SIP trunking applications offering for carriers. Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro said the company also is in talks with other carriers to launch the white-labeled telephony services.

"These smaller carriers used to be able to compete on price, but now they need to compete on features as well," Shapiro said. "They can't be sure without market testing which ones will work well for their market, either, so Ifbyphone's solution is very attractive for their needs. They can lease a small number of application ports, do trial runs and scale up the specific applications that catch on in their market."

For more:
- see the Ifbyphone release here

11/05/2009 - Nortel's Carrier Networks revenue drops 48%

Nortel's Carrier Networks group, which houses its carrier VoIP service and Application Solutions division, saw revenues slip to $737 million, down 32 percent year-over-year and 48 percent from the previous quarter, according to first-quarter financial results released today. While Nortel blamed much of the decline on its wireless segments, it's likely that Nortel's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings impacted the VoIP part of the group's earnings as well, as every division of the company saw a marked revenue decline for the quarter.

Company-wide, Nortel reported a net loss of $507 million for the quarter, as its $1.73 billion in revenue was off more than $1 billion from the $2.76 billion it recorded in the first quarter of 2008. The company said it is still in the midst of reorganizing its divisions, and it will begin reporting Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions earnings as a separate segment beginning in the third quarter of 2009. On a bright note, the company announced that it has sold more than 1,000 units of its Business Communication Manager 450 product, which provides unified communications capabilities for small- and medium-sized businesses, since its launch in October 2008, making it the fastest-selling product in company history.

For more:
- see the Nortel earnings release here

23/04/2009 - Upon further review, Nortel softswitch wins not so impressive

Last week Nortel announced it had sold its CS 1500 softswitch - the replacement to its legacy DMS platform -- to more than 135 customers globally. A deeper look at press release numbers between the initial product launch and last week's announcement, however, indicates initial momentum from the product's introduction has died out over the past year.

A May 27, 2008, release by Innovative Systems - supplier of the APMAX application server OEMed to Nortel's CS 1500 - celebrates the 100^th sale of the CS 1500 and notes the product was announced in March 2007.

By Nov. 20, 2008, Nortel had managed to sell the CS 1500 to "more than" 120 regional service providers throughout North America, so that equates to 20 sales over a six-month span and an average of around three sales per month.

Last week's announcement cites "more than" 135 service providers globally - so Nortel has expanded their pool beyond North America, so 135-120 units = 15 net, which leads to 15 units/5 months to deliver precisely three sales per month.

What does it all mean? "Nortel had some initial momentum, some service providers waiting for replacing DMS-10, the initial sales came from pent up demand," said Andy Randall, VP of marketing for MetaSwitch. "As people have looked at product capability more closely and looked at financial capability, there's been a very strong demand on [our] side, and a slowing down on Nortel and others....I think in general market terms, what we're seeing is quite a lot of nervousness about vendor stability, not just in switching, but in every area."

In comparison, MetaSwitch has sold more than 300 softswitches in the past year, and about 30 in the last five months. Randle believes presenting a single platform for legacy switch replacement and applications is winning over many carriers.

For more:
- Innovate Systems marks 100 CS 1500 softswitch sale in 2008. Post.
- Nortel posts 120 wins in November 2008. Release.
- Nortel soldiers on with carrier VoIP

Related articles
The death and life of Nortel - FierceTelecom

22/04/2009 - i2Telecom Eyes New Opportunities As Berman Appointed CEO

Telecomms veteran Andy Berman has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of i2Telecom International.
The move follows a "transitional period" for the Atlanta-based company which has seen it shift priorities towards mobile applications and services.

16/04/2009 - Verizon's Hub To Get App Store - And Multi-touch Controls

Verizon is creating an application store for its Hub home phone service as part of plans to broaden its market.
The move follows the trend among mobile makers such as Apple, RIM and Palm to open up to third-party apps. A further development to widen the appeal of the Hub will see Verizon removing the condition that Hub buyers have to be Verizon Wireless customers.

30/03/2009 - Orange adds enterprise telephony to Business Together program

Orange Business Services announced it has added enterprise telephony features to its Business Together joint offering with Microsoft. The Managed Microsoft OCS supports telephony additions to business applications through integration with Cisco IP Phones.

Business Together has 450,000 end-users currently, according to the company. Now, users of the program will be able to use Microsoft Communicator to unify instant messaging, email, telephony and mobility. On Cisco phones, employees using Business Together with Enterprise Telephony will be able to access click-to-call and presence features within Outlook, Office suite, and SharePoint. The new offering will reduce voice costs, costs-per-user, and travel expenses for businesses, according to Orange.

"Multinationals are looking for ways to effectively respond to the current economic challenges by reducing costs while increasing worker productivity," said Laurent Kocher, senior vice president of global services for Orange Business Services. "Business Together achieves both goals helping our customers to become more efficient and gain a competitive advantage."

For more:
- see the Orange press release here

20/03/2009 - Towards CTIA 2009: IMS capabilities appear through widgets

At CTIA, FeedHenry will unveil the first end-to-end IMS widget platform for complex services, as well as the first IMS widget engine for (yes) mobile handsets. The new technology will be demoed in Oracle's booth at the show.

FeedHenry is billing the IMS widget platform as a telecom operator framework capable of delivering Web 2.0 IMS services, such as voice, presence, and location as widgets to subscribers regardless of platform--web, mobile and desktop. The platform delivers IMS capabilities on a start page that service providers can use out-of-the-box to provide content to end-end users in a format that is easily downloaded and customized for distribution across mobile, desktop, TV or portals such as Facebook or iGoogle.

In addition, the IMS widget engine for mobile handsets, similar to the iPhone application store, allows users to access widgets from a carrier start page and download them to their mobile phone. Widgets will continue to work even when users are not connected to the Internet. In addition, FeedHenry's solution provides analytics on how services are impacting business.

Several companies are already using the FeedHenry platform. Oracle is using it to demo and deliver its service delivery platform (SDP), Eircom is using it for its myeircom.net content and service platform for end users and Ireland's The Munster Express is using it to send widgets of news content to users.

Widgets being demoed in the Oracle booth at CTIA include a SMS widget, a "Where am I?" LBS widget, a twitter widget, a billing widget to show the current balance in a prepaid account, and an on device portal (ODP) for cell phones to enable the download and use of content when the phone isn't connected to the Internet.

19/03/2009 - Nimbuzz Bridges iPhone 3G VoIP Gap

Nimbuzz has today released what it describes as the most comprehensive VoIP application for the iPhone after "quite a few" rejections from Apple.
Building on its iPhone app launched in November, Nimbuzz users can now make international calls to mobiles and landlines at domestic rates by dialing a local access number available in over 50 countries.

17/03/2009 - Truphone Launches Business App Aimed At Halving International Mobile Call Charges

Truphone announced today that it is launching a Blackberry application that enables business users to make international phone calls from their devices at fixed line rates.
The company claims that the new Truphone Business app will reduce call charges by at least half.

16/02/2009 - HelloSoft launches new convergence chip

HelloSoft, a VoIP and convergence chip maker, announced the launch of a new IP convergence chip, the HS100, Monday. The chip combines a low-power processor with a convergence suite for voice and data continuity in VoIP and unified communications applications.

HelloSoft claims the chip uses five times less power than existing solutions, extending battery life in dual-mode VoWLAN and WiMAX/WiFI devices.

"HelloSoft recognizes the strong consumer interest and market trend of convergence," said Allan Johnson, vice president of product management for HelloSoft, in a release. "The chip enables operators to ensure consistent user experience across access networks through intelligent connection management and seamless voice/data session handover. HelloSoft has successfully demonstrated voice-call-continuity, and data-session continuity while roaming across access networks."

Johnson said HelloSoft has won contracts with several Tier-1 OEMs and operators, and will announce the wins later this year. HelloSoft, which has traditionally operated solely in chip development, expands into the VoIP space with the convergence piece of the HS100.

07/01/2009 - Broadsoft Strengthens Position With Sylantro Purchase

VoIP applications provider, BroadSoft, has acquired competitor Sylantro Systems for an undisclosed sum.
BroadSoft provides VoIP application software designed to enable service providers to deliver hosted telephony and multimedia services to businesses and consumers.

02/01/2009 - BroadSoft CEO: "Bullish" on 2009

This week FierceVoIP talked to BroadSoft CEO Michael Tessler about the Sylantro acquisition, managing three distinct product lines, competitors in the VoIP applications space, and what prospects for 2009 look like.

"We have a strong position in the [VoIP applications server] market," said Tessler. "That position got stronger with the Sylantro customer base... It's a good synergistic fit, not only by adding the customer base, but having the ability for us to work with the customers we've acquired."

Since many of the customers are Tier 1 service providers, they are "pretty demanding," and BroadSoft has to make sure they can support both the existing in-place platforms and the customer. "We've moved over the technology functions, the people who were doing [support] at Sylantro," Tessler said. "We have all the capability Sylantro has, we have those employees. [Sylantro] customers shouldn't be worried, the support lines are there, all the crew is there."

With the acquisition of Sylantro, BroadSoft has three distinct product lines to support: its own, the GENBAND M6 applications server, and Sylantro's. While BroadSoft would like to get everyone onto one platform at some point, "that road is probably long," Tessler stated. "One problem you have in terms of acquiring a like competitor, you can't do a deep dive on integration until you close. Right now, we're matching platform to platform, what is on the roadmaps, what is needed. We've already done outreach to [Sylantro] customers, understanding their needs."

Right now, BroadSoft has to work with Sylantro customers in a "collaborative fashion" to put together a roadmap for additional features, and, ultimately, to move to a consolidated platform. "Clearly as a business, we'd like to converge those platforms, but that is a little early right now," Tessler said.

"One of the good things [we] learned through process of acquiring the GENBAND server, is [working] through [the acquisition] process... working with customers, locking down the roadmap, integrating the teams," said Tessler. "We were able to reuse the learnings in the Sylantro acquisition. We're in day one or two of that now, we're just starting process of collaborating with customers, understand what they were doing, and working with them on the future."

While BroadSoft has bought its most prominent competitor, it doesn't have a free ride ahead. "I wish I could say there's no competition, but there is," said Tessler. "It depends upon the market segment, geography. The Comverse guys are still around with Netcentrix. In the U.S. market, it's MetaSwitch with MetaSphere. On the consumer side we see the softswitch IMS core vendors, all the big switch manufacturers have their feature server platforms. There's a fair amount of competition. You see regional players in Asia, in Europe."

As an independent and pure-play applications server company, Tessler says BroadSoft is in a "pretty strong" position, with manufacturers sometimes competing with them and sometime acting as a channel to resell BroadSoft. "The key message is we've been able to build a very strong brand and use that to consolidate the space," he said. "We're looking forward to integrating the Sylantro team. We'll work with work with customers on their plans."

Looking to the future, Tessler is optimistic for the new year. "We're pretty excited and pretty bullish about 2009," he said. "What we've seen are carriers well underway in TDM projects and they are not going to stop. There's enough economics to make those transitions, and we don't see that changing.

"Will some spending slow down? Clearly, but that doesn't mean that [next generation network purchases] are going to stop. Every carrier is well under way [to NGN]. BroadSoft is active in 60-plus markets and there's a lot of transformation going on. We don't see that going down."

18/12/2008 - BroadSoft acquiring Sylantro - The impact

In a major consolidation of the VoIP application server space, BroadSoft Inc. is expected to publicly announce its acquisition of Sylantro Systems before Christmas -- if not sooner. Multiple sources with insight into BroadSoft and Sylantro say it's a done deal, with former Sylantro employees conducting a privately-held wake on a LinkedIn discussion.

At BroadSoft, the acquisition is being viewed as a major boon with great respect being given to Sylantro's past accomplishments in the marketplace, as well as its current brand strength. The company will gain 50 new customers from Sylantro, including AT&T, Qwest, Swisscom and NuVox. BroadSoft executives describe Sylantro as a "formidable competitor" for the past decade and say they are "fortunate" to be able to acquire such a strong brand.

Terms of the deal appear to have been quite favorable. Sources say BroadSoft believes it will be able to generate positive cash flow from the acquisition in 2009, a feat it attributes to the consideration and terms of the merger.

Others "in the know" on the transaction say that Sylantro was running out of cash with no means to raise additional capital. A shotgun wedding with BroadSoft was a way to save jobs for some employees and spare existing customers the uncertainty of a bankruptcy filing.

Sylantro's R&D office in Bangalore, India, is listed as a "key asset" in the acquisition. In addition, BroadSoft expects to keep a (smaller) office in Sylantro's Silicon Valley HQ and keep parts of the sales organization.

Doug Mohney contributed to this report.

For more:
- We don't think it's a rumor anymore, but we do not have official confirmation from either company. RUMOR MILL: BroadSoft buys Sylantro

21/11/2008 - Ifbyphone Secures $4.6 Million in New Round of Funding

Times may be tough but Ifbyphone has defied the apparent drought in venture capital funding and secured USD $4.6 million in a second round of institutional funding.
The capital infusion for the hosted telephone application platform company was jointly led by Apex Venture Partners and Origin Ventures, who also invested in Ifbyphone's first round of institutional funding.

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