Jared, I am very interested in this as well. I've been "following" Asterix@Home for quite some time now (now known as Trixbox) and have been trying to think of ideas in making a consulting/supporting business out of it. But the painful realization is that it isn't easy. Yes, Asterix is a very capable platform and I think it can be far superior to existing commercial platforms. But one very simple business fact remains - customers. Without buying customers (not one-time purchase type, but monthly/annual support type), it is still not viable. Avaya, Siemems or Cisco are accepted in the mid-size to large-size businesses are simply because they can be supported (from 3rd parties to internal) and support can be had for nation-wide and world-wide scale. An enterprising IT manager or director can try to introduce Trixbox from a point deployment standpoint, but I think it will be batted down from his/her CIO and may result in a career-changing move. Of cause, if the company itself is enterprising, that's a different story. But how many enterprises are like that and can I make a business as a 3rd party support for them? Most likely not. On the side of SMBs; they are more price conscious, so products like Altigen or even Trixbox can be entertained. But SMBs are also notoriously bad in their payments and willingness to do predictable business with. In the end, I have concluded that it isn't really worth my time to investigate further and perhaps wait until there's wider adoption for these type of technologies. This is just my 2 cents.
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Jared, I am very interested in this as well. I've been "following" Asterix@Home for quite some time now (now known as Trixbox) and have been trying to think of ideas in making a consulting/supporting business out of it. But the painful realization is that it isn't easy. Yes, Asterix is a very capable platform and I think it can be far superior to existing commercial platforms. But one very simple business fact remains - customers. Without buying customers (not one-time purchase type, but monthly/annual support type), it is still not viable. Avaya, Siemems or Cisco are accepted in the mid-size to large-size businesses are simply because they can be supported (from 3rd parties to internal) and support can be had for nation-wide and world-wide scale. An enterprising IT manager or director can try to introduce Trixbox from a point deployment standpoint, but I think it will be batted down from his/her CIO and may result in a career-changing move. Of cause, if the company itself is enterprising, that's a different story. But how many enterprises are like that and can I make a business as a 3rd party support for them? Most likely not. On the side of SMBs; they are more price conscious, so products like Altigen or even Trixbox can be entertained. But SMBs are also notoriously bad in their payments and willingness to do predictable business with. In the end, I have concluded that it isn't really worth my time to investigate further and perhaps wait until there's wider adoption for these type of technologies. This is just my 2 cents.