[asterisk-biz] Open Proposal

[Steve Totaro]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Roach [mailto:robert.roach at gmail.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 7:29 PM
> To: asterisk-biz at lists.digium.com
> Subject: [asterisk-biz] Open Proposal
> 
> 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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Thanks,
Steve Totaro