[asterisk-biz] RE: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk Jobs

[Steve Totaro]

Asterisk is still virtually unknown to endusers. The only reason why
it's even a blip on the radar of PBX manufacturers is because how
quickly the community is growing, and how feature rich the system is
already.  The biggest threat is that it is free and not proprietary
which totally flies in the face of the whole tradition of the greedy
industry.  They see what happened to the music industry when it moved
too slowly and did not anticipate the market paradigm shift.    

3com seems to have knowledge and insight into the future, at least that
is my take on the V3000.  A 1U IP PBX with one FXS port and four FXOs at
a slightly higher price to a decent Asterisk box.  I could easily sell
one of these boxes to an end user for slightly more than a comparable
Asterisk rig based on name recognition, the fact that they can call any
number of dealers in the area for support, the GUI, and the nice glossy
brochures!  If I demo the system, it is a no-brainer for the bean
counters, the suits, and even the overburdened techs.  Of course I would
mention that the system is very expandable and all you have to do is
plug in a phone and it will be ready to go automagically.  What I would
leave out is the fact that if, lets say you wanted to upgrade to a T1/E1
you would have to buy a different several U sized chassis and a card
that will probably set them back about $4k or so.  Also, I would not
mention that they were locked into 3com phones and that besides the high
price of the phone, they will need to also buy a license for it to work.


I think I read that Digium did something like $20 or $80 million in
business last year (obviously I am not sure of the figure but it was
impressive and more than I would have guessed for them).  That is a nice
chunk of change, but it is chump change to the overall PBX industry.  It
is like the penny that someone drops and doesn't even bother to pick up.

Looking quickly, I found this reference, "The PBX market at $13.2
billion in 2002 is forecast to reach $17.9 billion by 2008 during the
forecast period."
http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=34161 .

It is no wonder why you see very few jobs listed for Asterisk skilled
workers compared to the real market share holders.  The numbers just
aren't there.  There are plenty of consultants around the globe that can
SSH into a box on the other side of the world and configure it.  If I
was in the market to hire an Asterisk consultant, I would watch the list
and see who knows what the heck they are talking about and has a good
attitude or I would look at the wiki.  So far I have a few guys I would
call on if I needed some work done that I know would be high quality.  I
would call on Nicolas Gudino (the creator of AMP), Darren Wiebe (who
knows all about pre-paid, post paid, and what I am especially looking
forward to, the integration of OSCommerce to his platform, or the
Coalescent Systems guys.  I have some others but I keep them secret so
they are available when I need them.

I also have a feeling that most Asterisk jobs are self created.  

Will Asterisk get a chunk of the market share?  Probably some years down
the road but I will not hold my breath.  Not until there is something
similar to the marketing, documentation, sales channels, and name
recognition.  None of this will be easy since anyone can learn Asterisk
and start a company.  It is not like NEC for instance, where there can
only be so many distributors in an area and they must be certified.  If
they screw up, they lose their distributorship.  The Open Source
business model makes it almost impossible to emulate the same type of
marketing, sales, and business model.

Thanks,
Steve

I am going to cross post this to the biz list, since that is really
where it belongs.




> 
> Most of the Asterisk work I have found out and about is either done by
> internal staff or by companies wanting work done by external
contractors.
> 
> Like you, I have found very little in the way of full time jobs for
> 'asterisk people'
> 
> PaulH
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Douglas Garstang" <dgarstang at oneeighty.com>
> To: "Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion"
> <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>; "Asterisk Users Mailing List -
> Non-Commercial Discussion" <asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2006 10:47 AM
> Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk Jobs
> 
> 
> > I'm curious why the number of jobs out there requiring Asterisk
seems to
> be pretty low. After looking around dice, monster, careerbuilder etc,
I
> was
> surprised to find no more than 3-4 employment opportunities with
Asterisk
> throughout the US.
> >
> > Is it really that low? There seems to be a job of opportunities for
> Cisco
> and other vendors solutions (duh... GUI's are good... duh). I wonder
if
> demand will increase, or am I just looking in the wrong places?
> >
> > - Doug.
> >
> >
> 
> 
>
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