Sheesh… I’m feeling old! Spent yesterday out in Philippi at a school - Masivuke Primary - we’re hooking them up to Internet as part of our Corporate Social Investment programme. Crawling through ceilings and climbing up and down scaffolding took more out of me than it should have! Too many hours behind a keyboard and screen – time I got a more active life.
I digress though. “OfficeZone” is not a new concept. Neither is VoIP, IP Telephony, Asterisk, etc, but I am really excited about an opportunity we’re exploring with two local Cape Town based companies though.
In the corporate world here in South Africa VoIP is mostly used within the LAN environment for IP Telephony (by a few brave souls who paid a whack for brand name IP PBXs) and outside of the LAN environment as a means of Least Cost Routing – this is where we at Storm have focused. The impact for small and medium enterprises, especially where call volumes are large and the budget for an IP PBX is just not there, has been limited. That is changing.
Asterisk, a Free Open Source Software based IP PBX, is growing in popularity. Originally in the twilight zone haunted by geeks with an aversion to sunlight and an affinity for coke (the fizzy liquid sort!) and pizza, this Linux-powered PBX is putting on a suit and tie and offering to work for very little pay. We’re now seeing large call centres running on Asterisk.
When Storm first started offering VoIP services, there was a fair amount of sceptiscm. “Does this really work?” “What kind of quality can I expect?” “What is it going to cost me?” were some of the questions we were asked. But “what risk am I facing here?” was one unspoken question seldom voiced, but there.
The idea of replacing your trusty(?) old PBX with “something that runs on a PC” is a scary thought to most businessmen. So, Rob Lith of Connection Telecom and I agreed to explore the opportunity of creating a solution where you can migrate painlessly from “the old” to “the new” at very little cost and very little risk. As yet there is no product and we’re doing what I usually refer to as “eating our own dog food” – testing it on ourselves. I’m keen to hear from interested parties – either those who would like to be beta sites or those that might like to play the role of “install and maintain’” partners in areas outside of Cape Town. If you want to know more – download the slides I used at CITI’s ICT conference a few weeks back or drop me an email.
Download risk_free_ipt.PDF (807.5K)
But the kicker, and this is where things get real funky, is being able to set up a cell phone like the Nokia E61 (you can buy them at Vodashop’s countrywide) to become a wireless PBX extension while you’re in the office (the “OfficeZone”) – or at home (the “HomeZone”)! The phone can sense your WiFi Access Point when you come within range, switch over to VoIP over WiFi and register on your Asterisk PBX. Leave the AP zone – it reverts to GSM. How cool is that?
We hope to have something to start inflicting on willing victims by the end of this year, but watch this space for more! ;)
Connection Telecom is one of the leading Asterisk development outfits in the country. Clarotech is a well established, well respected IT infrastructure company. Storm, well we do a bit Voice and Data here and there! ;)