Westcon Launches Open Source IP PBX Configurator

The Tarrytown, N.Y.-based distributor claims the online configurator is the first of its kind and is available to all Westcon Group resellers registered in its CollaborationPoint OpenSource program.

Open-Source solutions still account for a very small percentage of the IP PBX market, but Westcon expects that to be the fastest-growing part of the market in the next year or two, Pirro said.

"It's new, but the writing is on the wall with open source. Even traditional players like Cisco and Nortel are developing systems based on open source," he said. "We think it's at the point where the vendors and the products are ready for prime time."

One of the challenges for solution providers serving the open source IP PBX market has been that it is not a mature marketplace and some vendors don't have a sophisticated support infrastructure for channel programs.

"We've put it all together," Pirro said. "One of the first challenges was to help resellers overcome an inefficient means for getting product information, pricing and availability, and to put it all together in a quote that made sense as if it came from a proprietary vendor."

Westcon Group's configurator uses a wizard-like system that can put together a quote in less than an hour. Conventional means require up to four hours to design a configuration and put together a quote, Pirro said.

"We put together a rules-based systems that allows anyone to go through the configurator and minimize any mistakes and the time it takes to get the information from multiple Web sites," he said.

The configurator can design IP/PBX solutions that include Digium's Asterisk platform, as well as products from SwitchVox, Polycom/SpectraLink, Nokia, CounterPath, MicroSemi/PowerDsine, Netgar, Nortel Networks, CyberData, InGate, Comdasys, AudioCodes, Packeteer, Radware, APC and Aheeva, according to Westcon.

Initially, the configurator focuses on Digium's platform and Pirro is unsure if or when it would include products from Cisco, Avaya or Nortel. That said, Westcon expects to add more vendor functionality in the future.

"The one thing we don't have in here currently is wireless. That would seem like a natural fit," he said. "We've got wireless vendors as part of our overall portfolio. I would think that if we were to grow this, our next step is to wireless. At this point, we're really focused with Digium."

Jeff Ross, senior convergence specialist at Vergence Communications, a Lincoln park, N.J.-based solution provider, said Westcon's configurator will help his business.

"The reality is that for large-scale deployments -- I don't think we'd use it but for anything under 100 users -- it's easy to do. It gives our sales people the right solutions that are compliant," he said. "And once the product list is built, with a click of a button, you can repackage all the [information into] PDFs to present to a customer." Vergence is a big Nortel house and 90 percent of its business still with that vendor, but he expects open-source business to grow to about 30 percent over the next year.

"Our traditional business is not falling off, but we see a significant increase in the adoption rate for open source," Ross said.