NetGen Communications Helping SMBs Go All-IP

At the recent ITEXPO (News - Alert) East event in Ft. Lauderdale, the buzz around the acceleration of enterprises around the world transforming their communications capabilities to being all IP was palpable. This was true regardless of company size, location and vertical market. It was also evident in every aspect of business and even residential new functionality ranging from personal and premises devices, to and through wired and wireless service provider networks and of course all variations of cloud implementations, i.e., public, private and hybrid.  

In short, thanks to a combination of the speed of technology innovation, competitive pressures, customer demands, and the need to become more operationally efficient and effective in general, the pace of everything becoming “E”verything was front and center.  Indeed, this is particularly true in the area for solutions being offered to small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs). And, what is being developed for these customers to allow them to accelerate their transformations is exemplified by the attention being paid to customers in the critical and hot North American market.     

One of the industry vets who has helped pioneer the moves by SMBs to IP is Michael Coffee, President and CEO, NetGen Communications (NetGen).  TMC (News - Alert) CEO Rich Tehrani had a chance to discuss with him market trends and insights.

For those not familiar with NetGen, the spin-off of Commetrex Corporation combines IP-telephony and Web technologies. It has made a name for itself over the years with its carrier-based Fax-over-IP (FoIP) solution Smart ATA.  As Coffee explains in the interview, the company began as a developer of media processing technologies that were licensed to OEMs. However, as a result of its partnership with Shanghai, China-based New Rock Technologies, which helped raise the level of performance and function of ATAs, NetGen is rapidly broadening its addressable market with a comprehensive set of New Rock solutions aimed squarely at SMBs. 

As Coffee says, New Rock has “one of most extensive product lines in the industry.”  He notes that this includes the following capabilities:   

• Gateways and tandem gateways to 120 ports
• IP PBXs to 500 subscribers
• Session Boarder Controllers (SBCs) to 500 concurrent sessions
• A full line of IP phones

Coffee adds that this entails offering a significant amount of related software.  He also cites the fact that the relationship with a high-quality Chinese manufacturer, for whom NetGen is now a distributor gives the company a pricing advantage in feature functionality.

Coffee says what is coming for NetGen is based on success being more than having great products at great prices. He says that the company focus right now is on “building infrastructure for the telecom channel.”  He adds that they are working on a cloud-based one for the channel “with RESTful API for all of the PBXs so our more technically capable partners can develop custom applications.”

In fact, his closing remarks should resonate with viewers.  In what is emerging as a significant industry trend, having open APIs as Coffee says can help close more sales since it allows channel partners to address specific needs of their customers.  And, when he says open he believes that NetGen’s is completely open. This he says is unlike the APIs of others in the market which are not as open as they might see.  Hence, he believes that this openness gives NetGen an edge to those looking to better serve and provide differentiated value in the hotly contested North American SMB market.