Open Source Telephony Favors SMBs

Andrew Garcia at eWeek writes that open source telephony has created “a fertile breeding ground for new solutions built from the ground up for small businesses.” Yet SMBs are lagging behind in VoIP adoption, not for lack of interest but because they don’t know what to use.

If this is you, you might consider Digium’s Asterisk appliance [VoIP News] for their open source Asterisk IP PBX. This is part of a kit that goes for just under US$4,000, but you you need the skills to use the software developer kit. This isn’t exactly something that’s a common skill. Which of course means that there is a market for SMB-targeted open source solutions.

Those with the skills could build modular IP telephony solutions and voice data applications on top of Asterisk, make them affordable for SMBs, and still make a profit. They could even put their money where there mouth is and set up an automated, voice-activated support system for customers.

Asterisk IP PBXes are starting to be a trend, with even universities such as Sam Houston State University (SHSU) switching over from big gun IP PBXes like Cisco CallManager.