Digium, Westcon Group Partner to Deliver Open-Source Telephony to Channel

Digium Inc.,creators of the Asterisk open-source telephony software, has teamed with value-added distributor Westcon Group Inc. to promote open-source telephony through the channel.

The collaboration is the culmination of a yearlong effort by Digium to bring its open-source solutions to a traditional telephony dealer channel in addition to the more technical resellers that had traditionally sold its products. The company’s first offer to mainstream sales partners was last summer’s introduction of the AA-50, an Asterisk-based appliance for businesses with less than 50 seats. Last fall, it also acquired one of its Asterisk developers, SwitchVox, which offers an IP PBX based on the open-source software, as well as SwitchVox’s dealer channel.

Of Digium’s approximately 230 resellers, about 40 percent now are more traditional telephony dealers and interconnects, according to Bill Miller, vice president of product management and marketing for Digium.

“The Switchvox resellers, interestingly enough, are very, very different from the traditional Digium reseller and all of the new recruited resellers, especially through Westcon, are focused on non-geeky, non-Linux-orientation. We always will have some that are, but the whole concept -- from the first AA-50 appliance that we started with to bringing SwitchVox on board in September and October -- has been a major driver and force,” said Miller.

Another step in this direction will be the launch today of the AA60, an appliance for the SwitchVox SMB Edition IP PBX.

Miller explained that the deal with Westcon is another major step in bringing new products into new channels and making Asterisk easy to use. “Westcon has business with Cisco, Avaya and Nortel. Now, they have a practice that focuses on bringing to traditional businesses, the benefits and value of an open-source platform,” he said.

Westcon Group today launched CollaborationPoint OpenSource, a solutions program that helps resellers deliver business-class, open source communication solutions. The practice is exclusively around Asterisk and SIP.

The entire line of Digium’s solutions is now available through the CollaborationPoint Open Source program. These include the Switchvox IP PBX, Asterisk Appliance, Asterisk Business Edition software and appliances, and Digium’s line of analog, digital and voice processing telephony cards for Asterisk servers and appliances.

As the first major distributor of open-source telephony, Westcon is breaking some ground, but company execs said the timing is right. “I think it’s finally gotten to the point that the manufacturers that have been able to survive the development have come out with some really solid products,” said Dan Pirro, group commercial sales manager, Westcon Group. “We feel it’s ready for prime time. We can take this solution out to our reseller base with confidence.”