VoipNow 2.5 Changelist Published on VoipNow Group
The changelist for the next major version of VoipNow Professional 2.5 will be announced on 23 June 2010 in the VoipNow group. You can join the group now to find out more about what it’s going to be available in the next generation VoipNow. This announcement will be made exclusively inside the group. The group is opened based on invitation only.
There are over 100 new features and improvements in the next version of VoipNow Professional. 
Join the VoipNow group
We invite you to join the Linkedin VoipNow group. You can do it here.
The group is by invitation only. It will be the first place where we will announce and discuss VoipNow new features. For example, in the first part of June we will publish the final feature set of the upcoming VoipNow Professional 2.5.
You are the Customer – Basic Questions to Ask about UC Services
We wrote much of the material below in 2008 for a whitepaper, but things haven’t changed much. That’s why I want to make some advices for small companies that want to choose a hosted Unified Communications service; hopefully they will make a better choice.
The key is to always ask the service provider before taking any purchase decision. There is no perfect software or perfect t solution, but the vendor must be aware of that and he must know how to get closer to perfection. Enjoy the following questions and do not hesitate to ask them before choosing a hosted service. Although they look quite simple, you might be surprised about what kind of answers you will get.
How is your UC service able to fit into my company’s processes?
The solution must be able to morph seamlessly when company processes change; the end-user should not massively adjust processes to follow the system. Solutions that try to impose a workflow should be regarded with skepticism. Remember, you are not looking for an ERP.
I have a small business. Do you have a scaled down version of your service?
This is a tricky question. Most vendors will say Yes, but this is not the answer to expect. Small companies gain their competitive advantage from efficient processes and they require outstanding tools to organize their communications. You need the best industry can provide, not scaled down versions. Well, you might need something different, but this is more training.
How many communication flows does your solution integrate?
A unified communications system should be able to offer at least voice, video, instant messaging, fax, web integration and email groupware. Even if you do not need all these now, you might want to have them in the future. It is impossible to have an excellent system that delivers all these functionalities; in most cases, third party integrations are desired.
How standard compliant is your solution?
Traditional PBX systems were locked into proprietary standards, increasing costs and decreasing interoperability. Don’t ink the same deal again. There is nothing wrong for the product to have a closed source, but it is wrong to use proprietary standards. It’s a great starting point that your provider uses SIP, but this is just the beginning, you should always ask specific questions like what phone terminals are formally supported.
What is your software update policy?
One of the greatest assets of software systems is the capacity to continuously improve. Check for the vendor’s claims and past records.
What does cloud mean for you?
Even for many service providers, the cloud is just hype, but it helps them sell better. Service providers must be able to provision resources in real-time and to infinitely scale. While the provisioning part is not so complicated, the scalability is. Don’t get tricked that you do not need scalability because only ten people in your company will use the service. You must assume that you made the right choice and you picked the correct vendor. If this vendor is so successful, he might have lots of problems scaling, which leads to your downtime.
How do you address security threats?
A common answer is “We never had any security issue”. This answer is stupid, they didn’t have any security issue because their service is not popular and thus not interesting to attackers, it’s not related to the process. Any software running in the cloud is exposed to many security threats and it’s totally different from desktop software. Service providers must have a proactive approach to security and use software from companies with a significant experience in this area.
What is your vision for the next three years?
Do not expect to get detailed information, but the vendor must be able to communicate a coherent vision for the next period. It is important to be able to understand the vendor’s perception about the industry. Avoid visions like – “Relax, we will do everything that big guys do”.
What are your plans for mobile agents?
Over the next years, smart phones will get many of the features notebooks have today. The revolution has just begun. Is the vendor prepared to deliver functionality and interoperability with these devices?
Why should our business use your solution?
Software companies and in many cases providers usually assume that it is enough to offer more features than competition to make everyone want their product. Recent history taught industry an important lesson. Innovation can lead to simplicity and this can gain the customer.
What availability can you guarantee for the system?
The availability of the system depends on underlying technology. The software platform should deliver at least 99.9% availability on standard hardware. The vendor must offer it. Some vendors will advertise 99.999% or even 99.9999% uptime. This is crap for many reasons, just search a little on the Internet, there are many research papers that explain what’s required to get there. I saw many companies that advertised such uptime apologizing for their one day outage that happened due to a terrific human mistake that will not happen again. The truth is that complicated systems need highly trained service engineers and even these ones make mistakes. Don’t look for overcomplicated things. Just choose a company with a good uptime record that is not afraid to pay you for downtime.
What are the hidden costs behind your service?
There are many companies that offer a very competitive price for the product; unfortunately, a lot of features are paid premium. There should be very clear at signup which features are included and what kind of support they provide by default. There is usually a little effort to get used with a product, so it’s not good to receive based news after several weeks of service.
I hope that this was useful. All questions above are in random order, not based on importance.
If you think this was useful, let me know and I will continue, there are also some important questions the service provider should ask the software vendor before deploying a particular platform.
Quick Updates
Some quick end of the week updates
1. We have published the roadmap of VoipNow Automation. The prioritization was made based on your feedback, that’s why we want you to continue sending suggestions.
2. MyVoipNow webinar is close. Please register, it’s going to be interesting.
3. VoipNow Professional 2.5 is work in progress and we are working on the backlog for version 2.6. Speaking of the next version, we need your help. Can you comment on this post – we need to know what you miss most in VoipNow Professional. Please try to limit the post only to the most important thing.
OXtender for Plesk version 1.0.1
Quickly after the first version, we released a new version that features extended compatibility. We got many requests from customers complaining that they run Plesk 8.6 and they are not able to use 4PSA OXtender. Starting with version 1.0.1, you can use OXtender with any Plesk version higher or equal to 8.3.0. We also fixed some minor bugs and introduced new functionality, maybe the most important being that the new version can work with email passwords that are encrypted in the Plesk database (it requires IMAP auth module on the Open-Xchange server).
From the licensing perspective, there are some news also. As you probably know, 4PSA OXtender included Open-Xchange seat licenses embedded in order to simplify the entire process. While the pricing is efficient, it might be too expensive to start when dealing with an infrastructure that has many Plesk servers. Due to this reason, we introduced a simple licensing, called OX server centric licensing where you pay on the Open-Xchange server level for the seats you use and a smaller price for the 4PSA OXtender. This was you can still enjoy the superior provisioning and management capabilities while keeping the costs low.
OXtender for Plesk
Several months ago we announced a Plesk integration for Open-Xchange. Back then the integration was done with a command line script, which unfortunately didn’t simplify the administrator’s life enough to make it really easy to sell Open-Xchange. Additionally, the licensing terms for Open-Xchange were not too flexible to allow small Plesk based businesses to sell it.
With 4PSA OXtender for Plesk, all these issues are solved, because:
- It comes with a new, fixed monthly price per Parallels Plesk server (no additional licensing fees for the Open-Xchange server).
- Easy installation and setup (each Plesk server can be added to OX in less than 5 minutes)
- To add OX webmail or groupware to a Plesk mail account, you only have to click a button in the Plesk interface.
- The OX webmail is free for all users. You can replace Horde with a webmail having personal address book, calendar and tasks.
- You can upgrade any account to groupware. There are two levels for the groupware: standard (private and public address book, InfoStore, calendar, teams, subscriptions) and premium (all standard features plus mobility).
- You can allow your resellers to access the OXtender features in Plesk, by setting a permission.
- All users that can access OXtender have the possibility to download reports regarding the number of accounts on each level (webmail, groupware standard, groupware premium).
- We provide support for the OXtender / Open-Xchange setup.
OXtender is available for Plesk 9.0.1 and upper versions, running on Unix/Linux. If you are interested to get it for Plesk running under Microsoft Windows, please add a comment to this post. It would be interesting to ask you questions here, as we can follow-up with another blog article.
You can see here some screenshots and there is also a demo available on our demo server.
Impressions on WebhostingDay 2010
I am writing this in the plane, coming back from WebhostingDay 2010. The event took place in Brühl, Germany. From our perspective, the event was much better than last year and this happened due to the growing hosting providers’ interest in Unified Communications. Many people heard and understood our message, even with the small resources put on marketing. I will resume below the most important things about WHD 2010:
- If you are European hoster, it is required to go to this event. If your business is outside Europe, I still recommend you to attend it. I met lots of guys from US there.
- I checked only three sessions, but all of them were good quality.
- Overall, it was better organized than last year. The fair location changed to get more exhibitors and to shorten distances. This eventually allowed more people to attend sessions and fair.
- The location where the fair took place was shocking at the start, because it was in two tents . While it looked more crowded in the beginning, it was actually much more useful space than last year. As Thomas Strohe from Intergenia explained me, this was the only option available at Phantasialand.
- More people attended the event. I think that a small percent could have simply skipped it, but when looking at the industry it is clear that there is more potential for the next year.
- I estimate that it was more successful for exhibitors also. Of course, I saw several (less than five anyway) that did not get much interest, but I have the feeling that it was their fault. You cannot really expect someone to come to your booth when you are staying down, looking pissed off and you are not from Microsoft
- I was looking for new products, services and innovations, but I have not discovered anything interesting to mention. On the other hand, I do not think that attendees were disappointed.
- The VIP party was still boring. The location changed to a better one, the entertainers were decent, but the gaps between them were too large. It is somehow boring because you also sit down, so you spend several hours with only 3-4 people.
- The ConneXion party in the last day (the one opened to all attendees) was better than the last year one – excellent band, larger space.
- The networking opportunities can be much improved. A website for attendees to discuss and schedule meetings before the event is recommended.
This is pretty much everything I can remember now.
It worth also mentioning that during WHD 2010 Open-Xchange announced the availability of Open-Xchange 6.16, which includes the first part of the integration with VoipNow Professional. You should really check it.
VoipNow Licensing Changes Explained
Starting with March 1, 2010 we changed the licensing methodology on VoipNow Platform. VoipNow Core is now more affordable for small customers with the new, dedicated server license for up to 250 concurrent calls. While this is a single server license, it expands to a 4Grid infrastructure able to sustain as many calls as you like. The pay as you grow, infrastructure wide licensing method is still available. In a service provider environment VoipNow Professional is available on pay as you grow licensing and also on dedicated server licensing for a small number of extensions. Perpetual (owned) licenses are available only for business customers.
Our current website should reflect all changes in licensing information. More information about the new licensing can be found here (Service Providers) and here (Direct Business Customers).
Why These Changes?
There are many reasons; I highlighted the most important ones below:
1. No SaaS licensing model
Sadly, although 4PSA developed the first product that accelerated SaaS deployments before most companies even learned the word (this was back in 2003), our old licensing model did not make sense on the SaaS market. Fortunately, the pricing was so low that the license purchase was actually more affordable than many other vendors’ monthly fees.
2. Poor correlation between pricing and costs
Speaking about price, the old price did not reflect the economics behind the product’s development, because VoipNow products are complex and expensive to produce. Even if we are a profitable company, it was obvious that we would not have been able to continue the aggressive investment in research and development no matter the pace of our growing rate. On the funny side, we lost deals in the past because some potential customers did not even consider VoipNow. They took the price as an indicator of the capabilities and quality of the product. No one believed we were so stupid to sell it so cheap 
.
4PSA has never changed pricing on VoipNow software until now, despite the inflation and product’s evolution. Before reaching the new licensing and pricing model, we studied the market intensively and discussed with our most important customers. The new licensing is still the most affordable on the market and does not substantially affect our customers’ margins.
I know that we have customers who are going to be very unhappy about this change, however I have to remember everyone that this change is in mutual benefit as it allows us to develop products faster and support customers better. This is vital for the growth of a service provider who is doing application hosting like UC. I felt many times that we could do more to help our customers to grow their business, as we have gained significant experience in the past years. Unfortunately, we could not afford to do this with all customers, due to the economics behind. The new licensing model will allow us to better focus on this.
3. Poor margin on distribution channels
The old licensing model was unfeasible for the new products we are going to introduce. Also with the old licensing, the reseller’s (the channel partner, not the service provider) margin was low. They were unable to properly scale their business and eventually to support our products on the quality standards we liked.
4. Unlimited is really unlimited
When we first introduced VoipNow Professional, it supported around 500 extensions on a server. Now VoipNow Professional is much faster, we have customers with more than 4,000 extensions on a server. With every new release, we improve performance. Back in 2006, VoipNow Professional was a single server product so we thought that unlimited is actually as much as a server can get, which was anyway limited. With the development of VoipNow and the multi-server infrastructures based on 4Grid, unlimited means really no limit. These are the main reasons why unlimited does not exist anymore.
How Is This Going to Affect You?
If you own a VoipNow Professional perpetual license under SUS, this change does not affect you, as long as you keep the license under SUS. Of course, if you need additional capacity, you will have to go with the current licensing.
If the license is not under SUS, you can still use it, but you will not be able to download the upgrades or to use our support services. You will also not be able to reinstate it anymore, so you will have to switch to the new leased licensing.
VoipNow Professional perpetual licenses under SUS are upgradable to any limit except unlimited (for example you can upgrade a license for 10 extensions to 300 extensions) until 30 March 2010.
If you own a perpetual license and you want to convert it to a leased license, we can give you a deposit equal to 50% of the license price when the license in under SUS and 20% when SUS expired. The deposit must be consumed in the first 6 months after conversion.
If you lease a license, the new licensing model is going to be effective starting with April 2010. For the month of March, there is no change in pricing. Sales will let you know about the changes personally.
More Support
I want to point to some interesting stuff with the new licensing that might not be so obvious:
- We have two licensing models. On the first one, you do not have any commitments and you get standard pricing and standard support levels, no matter how many customers you have. However, if you are willing to sign a commitment agreement with us (the commitment is quite low, but it shows that you are serious about your business) you will get better pricing and prices lower as business grows. You also get Expert Support level and even free programming services.
- When you get the commitment licensing option, you can opt for the All You Can Eat (AYKE) program for the first year. Under this program you can get all VoipNow Platform components for a flat fee. We introduced this option to better motivate our customers to proceed with quick implementation, marketing and sales actions.
- Also on the commitment licensing option, you can attend to at least four hours of free training per year (and up to 3 days), which is quite valuable for your business.
- With the commitment licensing option you get minimum 2 hours of consulting so you can build your service plans and position them properly on the market.
In the following weeks, I will focus on identifying the aspects where our customers need more help. During the last week at Parallels Summit 2010, after discussing with lots of service providers of all sizes, I have already spotted some areas where we can do better. This is still work in progress.
Finally, I want to thank you for your patience getting through this huge article. I am sure you understand that all changes described above were designed to allow our businesses to grow more in the future.
I also want to let you know that we created an email address called licensechange@4psa.com. You can send us your ideas, questions or concerns. Although it’s unlikely to make changes to the new licensing, we are ready to adjust parameters based on specific business constraints.
Join us a WebhostingDay 2010!
We are sponsoring WebhostingDay 2010, the leading European gathering for hosting companies, that will take place in Germany, near Cologne, between 17 and 19 March 2010. The event is not free, but we can send you an invitation code that covers all costs. Please contact sales@4psa.com for this.
You are invited to visit our booth #33 anytime and to attend to our CEO’s hosting.SESSION presentation about Unified Communications on Thursday March 18, between 16:00 and 16:45. We will attend WHD2010 with a team of six, but if you wish to schedule a meeting with 4PSA management, please email whd@4psa.com.
We will show at WHD2010 our latest developments, so we are looking forward to seeing you there.
My feedback on Parallels Summit
I’ve just returned from Parallels Summit 2010. I attended the summit with two colleagues, our Business Development manager and our Director of Business Operations in Americas. It was a very good event for us, with lots of discussions and findings. I will share some of the most important things below:
- VoIP gets more traction. With each year the number of hosting companies coming to us increases. They realize the importance of UC for their business.
Many hosting providers are still scared about VoIP because they don’t understand the market and the technical issues. Many of them are really interested to receive education.
- I met three different guys who built an in-house hosting platform for delivering VoIP for their hosting business. All of them want to switch to VoipNow, they realized that the business is no scalable this way – too many technical issues and always behind the market.
- Unified Communications was highlighted as the next major opportunity in all keys notes I attended to. We have known this for a couple of years, good to see that the market started to understand it.
- I met people who still believe that cheap means good business. I am sure that some of them will have a different opinion next year, if still in business.
- We met customers/prospects that tried other products before going with VoipNow. They started to love VoipNow.
- We met people that had various problems setting up VoipNow Professional. We are working to identify these issues, in both usability and documentation.
- I learned that Microsoft could put some PBX features in their OCS in two years. I would like this to happen; more user education is needed on this market sector.
- Our Cloud Calling slogan was noticed by many executives I talked to. On a funny side of things, the summit started with a keynote from an IDC analyst who remarked that the public telephony was the first very successful cloud.
- I identified some points in our products that need investment in the following weeks. We will start this process on Monday, agility is very important here.
And not lastly, Parallels Summit is really an event to attend. Miami Beach was great, the location was very good (although quite expensive, especially the bar ) and the people exceptional.
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