There remain millions of traditional TDM phones in the business world sitting on a two wire network infrastructure which, according to John Croce, can simply and cost effectively be upgraded to IP telephony without the need for brutal and expensive rip and replace policies.
Croce is CEO of Phybridge Networks, the Canadian based technology business whose PoLRE 8 port unmanaged and 24 and 48 port managed switches deliver Ethernet and Power over Ethernet over a single pair of wires. With these solutions, he argues, there is no need for customers to risk the cost, disruption and complexity associated with layering real-time voice on a distributed topology built for data delivery.
Croce says this methodology was forced on customers because there was no innovation like the Phybridge switches before. He is so confident the solutions will meet or exceed industry accepted voice quality levels for VoIP that if the Phybridge backbone installed by a certified Phybridge partner does not meet or exceed industry standard for voice quality, Phybridge will return 100 per cent of the cost of the PoLRE.
Phybridge was established seven years ago by business entrepreneur Croce and technology guru Oliver Emmanuel, who invented the technology. On a recent sales trip to the UK, Croce met Comms Dealer and explained the background to Phybridge and his plans to change the channel's thinking about the migration of their customers to IP voice platforms.
"Our go to market strategy is based on that quotation from Einstein: 'simplicity is the ultimate sophistication' and when you look at our technology and what our network switch does, it does address complex problems in a simple manner. This industry too often views things from a technology perspective without enough empathy and understanding as to what it takes the customer and the provider to get that technology in place and working reliably.
"When Oliver introduced his innovation around leveraging the existing two wire voice infrastructure and creating an Ethernet path with power to deploy IP phones, it was just logic to me and made perfect sense. If a business is looking to deploy IP Telephony Unified Communications in a cost effective manner which is non-disruptive, highly secure and quick and easy, it makes a lot of sense to leverage a proven voice infrastructure as opposed to layering voice on a data switch fabric designed for near time data delivery. We are all accustomed to waiting three to five seconds for a data file to open but if I am on a phone call with you and I don't understand you for three to five seconds that's not acceptable."
Croce maintains that while comms providers can get very excited about a hosted VoIP solution, they often fail to communicate with the customer about the LAN requirements needed to port that application. "Our solution is that missing link. We are the solution from the D-Mark to the desktop. Wherever a customer has a legacy phone today they can have an IP phone tomorrow with guaranteed quality of service, highly secure, and voice continuity meaning voice survives even if the data LAN fails.
"It has nothing to do with the technology because VoIP and IP Telephony technology is a very sound technology. But if you look at the legacy voice solutions whether they be a Mitel, an Aastra, or an Avaya/Nortel, all of those technologies were proven reliable and the one thing they all had in common was the topology of the network design being point-to-point from every phone with a dedicated physical two wire infrastructure going back to the call control. There was no other device sharing the bandwidth. You had the packets travelling in order, on time without contentions or loss. There was high reliability not because of the technology but because of the design of the network topology to support that real time application.
"So now fast forward it to no longer leveraging that proven point-to-point topology and layering voice on a switch fabric that in its initiation was designed for near time data delivery with every device sharing the bandwidth, and the inevitable result is a flaky experience with voice."
Croce says that since its foundation Phybridge has deployed over 200,000 end points across the SME and larger enterprise spectrum. The US is by far its biggest market where larger clients include universities like Georgia Tech, Arizona State and New Mexico State, federal and state government installations, plus hospitals and big hotel chains like the Starwood Group.
"We are working with a customer right now with 34,000 locations in the US. Could you imagine migrating 34,000 locations to a hosted telephony offering? The beauty with what we do is with every single one of those locations the voice infrastructure is exactly the same. Whether you have 20 users or 2000, whether you are in the UK, Canada or the US, that topology is exactly the same which allows for a repeatable, predictable, saleable process as you look to migrate customers to IP."
The Phybridge solutions have been certified to operate alongside the majority of premises and hosted based telephony vendors including Aastra, Avaya, Broadsoft, Mitel and NEC Having already secured a distribution partnership with Nimans, Croce and his Senior VP Viv Singh are now on the hunt for more UK reseller partners looking to offer customers a less disruptive IP migration path for customers.
Croce refers to one reseller partner who had a customer with 1400 users and a budget of 1.8 million dollars to spend on infrastructure changes. "Our partner introduced our technology, they tested it, they went ahead, it cost them 300,000 dollars versus 1.8 million dollars, the project was fast tracked by six months and the migration of 1400 users was completed in a single weekend. The customer allocated the savings to more UC applications and training of the users driving a better overall return on investment."
If that scale of opportunity is there for the taking in the UK, Phybridge might just be the answer to a lot of reseller's prayers.•