TMCnet: Fonality Launches trixbox Pro, Rebranded PBXtra
By Erik Linask
August 13, 2007
The emergence of VoIP as the dominant communications technology has not only prompted a certain amount of industry consolidation, but it also has generated a need for communications vendors to continually innovate and improve their product lines. It’s one thing to create a niche within the community — it is another to keep it, let alone grow it. The key, of course, is to have the ability to adapt to the market without creating strain for customers.
Fonality has, since 2004, been shipping its PBXtra Asterisk-based IP PBX for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). But despite being based on open source software, it included a number of propriety features that prevented it from truly taking off — among them, the lack of ability to choose IP phones of choice for a deployment.
Now, however, Fonality has announced its trixbox Pro, which not only can be downloaded free, but also includes several other enhancements, like the ability to use a selection of Polycom or Aastra phones, which will automatically be configured and assigned extensions. Users can also use any other SIP phone, which they can then manually reconfigure.
Essentially, the trixbox Pro is a Fonality’s PBXtra product core software, including a telephony card detection feature that automatically identifies telephony hardware installed on a server — Sangoma, Pika, Digium, Rhino, etc. — making the deployment of the VoIP platform a pain-free process.
With trixbox Pro, users can enjoy both basic and many advanced VoIP features — conferencing, unified messaging, presence features, embedded secure corporate chat, Outlook integration, and more.
Perhaps the most exciting new feature included with trixbox Pro is trixNet, the equivalent of a private VoIP peering service, which essentially connects trixbox Pro users to one another without connecting to the PSTN, regardless of the service provider either party uses. When a user places a call, trixNet quickly checks its database to determine whether the called party is also part of trixNet, and if not, routes the call to the PSTN. Additionally, the system has also been designed to detect connection times and reroute calls to the PSTN if calls are not connected within one second.
trixNet is not currently available to trixbox CE users, but Fonality says that is in the works, and anticipates making that happen soon; it also anticipates extending trixNet services to GoogleTalk users.
trixbox Pro is available is three editions: the basic edition is free and designed for businesses with fewer than ten users; Enterprise Edition, targeting businesses with up to 500 users, can be licensed for $9.99 per seat per month; and the Call Center Edition, designed for canters with up to 200 agents, costs $19.99 monthly per seat.
In addition to accommodating more users, the fee-based version also include enhanced version of Fonality’s HUD, an easy to use, color coordinated graphical display of system activity, and other business process enhancing features. Call Center Edition, for instance, includes integration with Salesforce.com and SugarCRM.
The enhancements and existing features included with trixbox Pro are all designed to offer businesses an easy to use VoIP software product that can bring their communications platform to the IP era without breaking the bank; and for resellers, it provides an attractive, easily branded product.
However, at the end of the day, while the enhancements are, without question, make for a better VoIP solution, they are also part of a rebranding exercise that Fonality had to undertake because of the proprietary pieces to its PBXtra. For all its richness and features, Fonality had to contend with considerable backlash from customers and the media for its lack of openness — despite being based on open source software — and CEO Chris Lyman’s hopes are trixbox Pro can help Fonality continue to grow and retain its presence in the open source IP PBX space.
