Asterisk™, like most open source platforms, was initially developed to provide basic telephony services.  Pick up the phone dial a number and speak with someone on the other end - that's it.  The difference was cost.  Even small office phone systems were $1,400 per handset ten years ago.

In fact, Ambit found Asterisk™ because we needed a business grade telephone system four years ago.  We solicited area telephone vendors and were astonished at the prices.  Our requirements were simple; basic calling features, voicemail, automated menus, hunt groups, and voicemail to email.  The systems quoted had pages of licensing fees for each handset.  If you needed to just talk - licensing fee.  Needed voicemail - licensing fee.  Needed an automated menu - licensing fee.  Needed unified messaging - licensing fee!  We implemented Asterisk™ when it was still a little rough around the edges from an interface standpoint.  But, what we found was a diamond in the rough; a very stable platform that had all the features and then some as apart of the core system.  Dialing, Voicemail, Ring (Hunt) Groups, Auto-Attendents, Voicemail-2-Email, Conference Rooms, Time Rules, and many more features - with NO LICENSING FEES.

It is important to understand that "No Licensing Fees" does not mean free.  We still had to provide a server to run Asterisk™, handsets to make calls, and time to put it all together.  In the course of deploying Asterisk™ internally we had our Accountant and Office landlord ask if we could put a system together for them - they had gotten pricing the same time we had and were impressed with our first system.  3,000 handsets later we are growing stronger each day.  So why is Ambit, a relative new comer to the telecommunications market, different?

The Old Way

We spent a significant amount of time understanding the current telecommunications industry.  What we found surprised us - while the equipment had changed the implementation and support model had not.  The model that Alexander Bell put into place is alive and well - and that's not necessarily good.  Traditional telecom vendors are merely extensions of the regional Bell operating companies (RBOC) after the court ordered breakup.  What does that mean?

Most independent telecom companies were started by former (RBOC) employees.  They simply went out and resold commercial PBX systems and also resold the RBOC circuits (PSTN, T-1, PRI).  The challenge is that commercial PBX systems are nothing more than a collection of products cobbled together via acquisitions.  The challenge with dealing with RBOCs is that they haven't changed their business model in 125 years and offer nothing more than dialtone.

Essentially, the tradional companies are nothing more than an extension of the RBOCs Sales and Support organizations.  They will sell whatever they are getting incentive to sell this month and change like the wind to another product with next month's sales promotion.

Finally, the 'ole nickle and dime model of support.  You purchase a Maintenance and Support contract and then call to have a phone moved or add a new phone number - cha-ching.  Does the phrase "Adds, Moves, and Deletes" mean anything?  Most organizations spend thousands of dollars a year on top of their "Maintenance and Support" contract.  Remember the commercial where the child asks "Do you drive the truck?", the truck is the old model.  Even though your organization had a top notch Information Technology groups, the telecom equipment was always maintained by a voodoo artist in a truck.

The Intermediate Way

The advent of Voice over IP (VoIP) technology has many of the traditional equipment manufacturers running scared.  In fact, Nortel (the single largest telecom equipment company in the world) went bankrupt last year.  Why, because the world of telecom is going through two changes.  First, handsets and telecom circuits are becoming commoditized.  Second, the move to VoIP puts a greater emphasis on the Information Systems aspect than the Telecom aspect; basically, a Local Area Network (LAN) engineer can deal with VoIP technology better than a telecom switch engineer.

There is still one basic problem with the Intermediate Way, the commercial implementations of VoIP are proprietary interfaces and protocols.  This means that licensing fees are still being driven and a knowlege barrier is still being maintained.  The proprietary VoIP platforms want you to be reliant on them for Support and Maintenance.

A second Intermediate approach is the "Hosted" model.  The rationale for this is that the commercial equipment is too expensive for a small organization to purchase so rent them the equipment and telephone circuit on a per handset basis.  The problem with this model is that the customer actually could have purchased an Asterisk system with one year of rented/hosted service - and you own the system.

The Ambit Way

Ambit's management saw a paradigm shift coming in the telecommunications industry.  Open source software had invaded traditional software bastions like database, office productivity, etc. for years.  But, Asterisk™ was a game changer, it was the first open source platform to take on a multi-billion dollar proprietary telecom equipment industry.  Simply pour the Asterisk™ software, Digium® telephony card, into an industry standard HP® or Dell® server and viola - you have a non-proprietary non-license fee based telephone system.

Ambit recognized the wisdom of empowering their customers with the ability to manage and maintain Asterisk™ on a daily basis.  This is a testament to how simple the Asterisk™ platform is.  Finally, Ambit is not tethered to a commercial entity dictating sells strategies and spiffs.  Ambit is completely sold out to the open source Asterisk™ platform.

The result of this model is an inital capital investment 50% of the commercial platforms and annual Maintenance and Support 30% of commercial platforms!  But, the best news is that you, the customer, get a telecommunications system that can be tailored by you for you!

Finally, Ambit is extending the Asterisk™ platform with solutions specific to the Education and Healthcare markets.