[asterisk-biz] Open Proposal

[Kyle Hagan]

Im in..

Kyle

C F wrote:

>You can count me in, but I doubt this will work out.
>
>On 1/24/06, Robert Roach <robert.roach at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>This letter is addressed to all the businesses like mine that are
>>developing, deploying and supporting Asterisk based PBX systems for the
>>small to medium size business market.
>>
>>I believe that we are starting to see a need for a formal organization
>>that is focused exclusively on supporting our business model.
>>
>>Our customers have specific needs, both from a product and business
>>perspective, that present unique challenges to us and differentiates us
>>from companies deploying Asterisk for call centers and independent
>>consultants.
>>
>>IMO, it is our common focus and background that not only presents
>>challenges, but gives us an opportunity to leverage our common interests
>>to build a stronger product.
>>
>>In addition, I'll suggest that the majority of us are, by virtue of
>>working in relative isolation from one another, on the whole duplicating
>>a lot of effort in terms of product development, sales and marketing and
>>human resources.
>>
>>In short, there must be a way for us to combine our resources, apply the
>>virtues of Open Source Development to our business model and thereby
>>realize the common goals of lowering business costs, speeding product
>>development, increasing quality and last but not least, providing a
>>global support organization to provide a fall back to both our customers
>>and ourselves.
>>
>>A bit of background: Last June I attended Astricon in Madrid and floated
>>the idea of an Asterisk Business Consortium - A group of like minded
>>companies across the globe, sharing a common business goal and working
>>together to share resources. At the time, I met with a decidedly mixed
>>response to the idea. Most people were choosing the go-it-alone
>>strategy. Speaking to Digium about it, they are focused – rightly so –
>>on growing their own business. However, based on what I have read
>>recently on this list – notably Michael's recent request for a 24x7 help
>>desk - it seems that the time has come to make a more formal proposal to
>>the community at large.
>>
>>
>>My proposal is to create an organization comprised of member companies
>>to address the following issues:
>>
>>1. Business Related
>>
>>a. Customer Support - Need for 24x7x365 support for Asterisk installations.
>>
>>b. Continuation 'Insurance'- Provide an umbrella organization to give
>>your customers the assurance that they are not necessarily relying on
>>you as the single source for future support/upgrade of the system.
>>
>>c. Boiler plate contracts – In as much is practical – develop 'standard'
>>contracts to offer customers.
>>
>>d. Marketing – Sharing the development of marketing materials e.g. data
>>sheets, FAQs, etc
>>
>>
>>2. Technical
>>
>>a. Standardization of 3^rd party application integration to the Asterisk
>>platform (Jive IM Server, AsterFAX, Sugar CRM integration, etc). We
>>would all benefit from having a coordinated effort in this area reducing
>>duplication of effort.
>>
>>b. Internal development of Asterisk related applications – In order to
>>fill voids in functionality, we can again make a coordinated effort to
>>build the applications we need. IMO, relying on third party proprietary
>>applications for critical features introduces an element of risk into
>>our product based on the viability of the 3^rd party's business.
>>Additionally, you don't have direct control over the development time
>>line or features.
>>
>>c. 'Standardized' extended functionality for dial plans – For example, a
>>speed dial implementation or password protected extensions – As this is
>>not supported natively in Asterisk – it is implemented in any of a
>>variety of ways by each of us. Difficult for a 3rd party to troubleshoot
>>and again working in silos duplicating effort.
>>
>>
>>Near Term Tangible Benefits.
>>
>>I can think of several, but two specific examples spring to mind.
>>
>>First, our business is based in South East Asia, but some of our
>>customers have offices in the US. We would like to have a reliable
>>partner to service the remote offices. As each new customer presents
>>their own unique scenario, building relationships with other Asterisk
>>support companies on the fly on a one-off basis is just too time
>>consuming and potentially risky.
>>
>>Second, our company has developed a GUI for business users that is
>>specifically NOT a graphical representation of the Asterisk dial plan,
>>but is rather a user centric application giving them desktop SMS
>>features, call forwarding customization, extension password protection
>>etc in a format which does not require any knowledge of how a dial plan
>>is configured. I know that others out there have done the same. If we
>>had coordinated our efforts from the outset we would likely have saved
>>time, have a more robust and feature full application. It is still early
>>in the deployment cycle for Asterisk overall and we can still capture
>>some of these benefits.
>>
>>
>>How would this work?
>>
>>I think most everyone would agree that the above goals are laudable, but
>>just how can you get everyone to agree on how it should be implemented
>>is the tough part. I have a rough draft of ideas on how to execute this,
>>but at this stage, I'd like to get some reactions from all of you to see
>>if this is something worth pursuing.
>>
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Rob
>>
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