Zultys Zooms Ahead

The SMB VoIP vendor this week is also taking the wraps off its first wireless VoIP handset, a product channel partners have been clamoring for, said Iain Milnes, president of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company.

Since joining the company in May as vice president of channel management, Terry Janocko has made growing Zultys&' partner ranks his top priority. “It&'s his job to make sure the channel is growing and happy,” Milnes said.

Currently, the 100-percent-channel company has approximately 200 U.S. partners and is growing sales 30 percent sequentially per quarter, Milnes said. The privately held vendor does not disclose revenue.

Janocko, who previously served as vice president of sales and operations at solution provider Expanets, is also in the midst of bringing new distribution partners into the Zultys fold.

“What we&'re looking for are large distributors who have the financial backing and wherewithal to extend credit lines to our resellers,” Janocko said.

Zultys just added Computerlinks North America, the recently launched U.S. arm of European distributor Computerlinks, as a distribution partner. Computerlinks already partners with Zultys overseas. Janocko said he plans to add one or two more U.S. distribution partners in the next two months.

On the product front, the company is prepping the launch of its long-awaited WIP 2 Wi-Fi VoIP handset. In development for the past year, the handset is slated for a November rollout.

Wireless phones are becoming must-have pieces of VoIP solutions, said Nicole Lyon, director of telephony operations at Xtelesis, a Burlingame, Calif.-based solution provider.

“People want to have cordless phones and they want [them] to be part of a full IP solution. They don&'t want to bring in analog phones,” Lyon said. ]

The standards-based handset runs on Linux and supports Session Initiation Protocol, making it compatible with Zultys&' full line of IP-PBXes as well as SIP-enabled VoIP platforms from a variety of other vendors.

WIP 2 includes several business features, including two line appearances, call conferencing, encryption, paging and a long-life battery, Milnes said. When used with Zultys&' VoIP systems, it also supports presence so users can see when colleagues are or are not available.

Zultys has not established pricing for WIP 2, but it will likely fall in the $300 to $350 range, Milnes said.