Microsoft Got It Right! Small Business Telephone System – Response Point

by admin

May 26, 2008

For the past 15 years I have been dabbling in VoIP and IP Telephony and recently it occurred to me that the major benefits that excited me about VoIP and drove me down this entrepreneurial career path, are now finally past early adoption.

When Microsoft announced that they were entering the SMB phone system market you have to believe that the innovation in that scene is largely over. In saying that, I also have to mention that the new Response Point PBX from Microsoft is impressive. In fact, it impressed me to the point that I actually bought one for a client of mine.

As expected, yes, it is closely tied to XP and/or Vista but not so much that you can not configure it if you have a Mac, as I found out.

You will not find a full review of the system here but I will point out a few of the pros and cons of the system.

The Good

Easy to Configure: It took me about 1 hour to go from unpacking the equipment to making the first call, using all of the system defaults

Easy to Customize IVR: Record via handset or upload your own WAV files

Speech Recognition – It Works!: This is quite unique in a PBX offering for this market. When someone calls in and says “Sales” it will actually direct that caller appropriately, getting it right almost every time

Open Standards – SIP 3261: This is great as it mean interconnection with a SIP trunk (SP 1) will not be an issue.

The Bad

Outlook Assistant works only on XP or Vista

If you are looking for a small business telephone system (1-20 seats) with some great bells and whistles, at a reasonable price ($2800 for 5 sets) then Response Point is a great candidate.

News

Outlook Calendar Gets A Voice

by admin

May 20, 2008

Lypp for Outlook is nearly complete. Here are the highlights:

Lypp account optionally created on download/install
Integrates with Outlook address book and Exchange global contact store
Sync with Outlook contacts and Lypp contacts
Create Conference Call and Calendar event at same time.
Schedule outbound calls or dial-in Toll Free calls or combination of the two.
Edit/modify existing call/meeting.
Create recurring Calls/Meeting
Right click on contact to create call

Even though I am not so much a Windows guy anymore I have been using the Lypp for Outlook Add-in through Parallels and I have to say, it makes my life soooo much easier. Now I can schedule my calendar events and my calls (even 1 to 1) at the same time, no more swivel chair.

Hmm, now if only someone would mashup the Lypp API with Google Calendar…

37signals + Lypp Mashup Canceled

by admin

May 20, 2008

Due to the fact that there are not nearly enough active applicants to constitute a fair contest we are canceling the 37signals + Lypp mashup contest.

more…

by erik | sipthat.com

gdpr

Canadian Wireless Spectrum Auction – 3 Weeks

by admin

May 15, 2008

There are only 2 weeks to go before the Canadian Wireless Auction closes, 3 weeks to auction awards and things are getting… interesting.

T-Mobile dropped off the list several weeks ago and more recently Niagara Networks withdrew their application.

This means there are now zero foreign applicants on the roster, right?

Hmm, not necessarily. Upon closer inspection we see that one of the Canadian numbered companies is owned in no small part by a few well known US VCs, with Canadian firm Novacap leading the charge.

Something else that’s rather peculiar about this list on first glance is the missing MSO / Cable Companies. On that note, I have it from a reliable source that Cogeco is also in the running, Quebec’s largest cable provider. The same is true for the Alberta numbered company, we already know that one is Shaw.

There are also some smaller firms that are looking to break into the cellular market in Canada, one such company is GlobaLive.

From CBC…

The privately held company, which sells telecommunications services under the Yak brand, said it was seeking 1,892 bid points with a required deposit of $235 million, making it the sixth-most-aggressive seeker of spectrum so far. The company said it was receiving funding from Egypt-based Weather Investments, which runs cellphone providers in Italy and Greece, as well as London-based Novator, which operates carriers in Poland and Iceland.

MTS Allstream and Quebecor have also thrown their hats into the ring.

From all of the known contenders I think Globalive and MTS (the incumbent in Manitoba) are the most interesting. They both have SIP infrastructure deployed in the public realm and both could bridge the gap between wireless and wired networks in a very seamless manner. Standards compliant VoIP across wired and wireless networks, very interesting.

I will be covering this closely from here on so stay tuned.

erik | sipthat.com

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