NetPlus: Product of the Year!

NetPlus® Telecom Management System recognized for Voice-over-IP (VoIP) Capabilities

Internet Telephony® magazine has chosen NetPlus® as a winner of the magazine’s prestigious Product of the Year Awards for 2005. Internet Telephony, published by Technology Marketing Corporation, is the premier publication in the rapidly growing VoIP/IP telephony industry.

NetPlus® integrates with IP-based vendor equipment, and extends telemanagement functionality into the VoIP platform with a migration that is transparent to end-users, the transport technology, and the equipment vendor.

"As the move to VoIP builds, a TMS built on open standards with APIs that allow other systems to access its functionality and data is required to fully realize the benefits of VoIP,” said George T. Jimenez, CEO of ACE*COMM. “NetPlus® is built on open standards, so that organizations can easily extend the system as new network devices are added and new services are made available. Further, as IT and telephony intertwine and merge, NetPlus® can track and access data in near real-time from all sources and make its data available to other IT management systems.”

According to TMC Editorial Director Greg Galitzine, “The Product of the Year awards exemplify the best that this industry has to offer. The companies earning this distinction have demonstrated a commitment to quality, and a commitment to the further development of the IP telephony industry through their contributions. All winners deserve this great honour, and I look forward to seeing other innovative solutions from them as they continue to contribute to the future of VoIP and IP telephony.”

Network Business Intelligence Suite Moves to the Enterprise

Enterprise networks are becoming more and more complex as they adopt systems and data from the carrier side of the network world. In parallel, communications infrastructure contines to gain prominence as a vital component of a business’s support system. In order to make sense of all this complexity, the need has never been greater for a network business intelligence nerve center within the enterprise that can optimize the telecommunication assets and services – a platform for collecting and analyzing network information in order to support business decision making.

The ACE*COMM Network Business Intelligence™ (NBI) products provide that platform. They address specific business needs in the areas of recovering and improving the use of network assets, accurately accounting for services used and services provisioned, optimizing network planning, and improving data quality. The NBI products – which include such offerings as network capacity/demand visualization, asset recovery, service discrepancy resolution, and softswitch migration – were designed for use by telecommunications carriers, but have shown their ability to solve many pressing issues for managers of enterprise telecommunications.

NBI provides managers of enterprise telecommunications with the ability to maximize service levels while controlling both operating and capital expenditures on communications. Traditionally, enterprise communications is seen as simply a passive cost center, but improving efficiency and responsiveness of enterprise telecommunications through NBI helps it become closely linked with the business and strategic communication needs of the organization.

For more Information on ACE*COMM's NBI, contact nbi@acecomm.com.

NetPlus Helps Air Force Integrate Networks

Read how the US Air Force is using NetPlus® to move closer to their goal of "One Air Force, One Network." View Article. (Excerpted from Intercom Online magazine. Two-page PDF).

Four New NetPlus Customers

We recently added four new NetPlus® customers, which signals the penetration of several new vertical markets for the NetPlus telemanagement and enterprise OSS solutions, and the expansion of our presence in the commercial business market sector. The new customers include:

• One of the largest private universities in the U.S., which operates a multi-campus communications network. The customer has purchased an extensive suite of NetPlus® enterprise OSS solutions including hardware, software, maintenance, and training. 
• A major worldwide developer and operator of hotels, resorts, and hospitality chains, which will use NetPlus® to manage telecom services at its headquarters’ facilities. 
• One of the world’s largest providers of building supplies and home improvements, which will use NetPlus® to manage communications more effectively. 
• A major U.S. public power utility, where NetPlus® is being used to manage communications, improve operating efficiencies, and reduce communications costs.

Industry News & Trends

PBX Market Slips, IP PBX Market Soars

With the industry in the throes of the VoIP revolution, worldwide PBX and key telephone systems sagged 12 percent to $1.5 billion between the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of this year. However, IP PBX revenues jumped 10 percent in the quarter, to $223 million of that total, according to new findings from Infonetics Research. Year- over-year IP PBX sales were up 36 percent and TDM sales were down 20 percent, and they are expected to continue sliding, Infonetics says.

Driven by the growth of both pure IP PBX and hybrid IP/TDM systems, Infonetics says it sees overall growth in the PBX market reaching $1.7 billion by the first quarter of next year. At that point, combined IP and hybrid systems should be a majority of the market - at $1 billion - and pure IP PBXs will be up another 24 percent to $277 million in sales.

"Most of the hybrid players had a down first quarter, but the pure IP players like 3Com, Cisco and ShoreTel were able to maintain growth. This was pretty much a repeat of what happened a year ago; however, this dynamic, coupled with the progress that relative newcomers like Cisco have made over the past year, led to some interesting market shifts," says Infonetics Research's Matthias Machowinski, author of the report and directing analyst for enterprise voice and data. "For example, Cisco is now tied with Avaya for North American IP PBX market share, with both having 17 percent of lines and 23 percent of revenue in the first quarter - an impressive feat."

According to Infonetics findings, the top IP PBX vendors in terms of lines shipped were Alcatel, Nortel, Avaya, Cisco and Mitel, in that order. The highest sequential line-shipment-growth winner was 3Com, up 26 percent. Looking into its crystal ball, Infonetics says hybrid PBXs, which now account for 57 percent of PBX revenues, will account for 67 percent of the market by 2008. Pure IP PBXs, now just 15 percent of the market, will increase to 23 percent. TDM PBXs, currently still 28 percent of the market, will decrease to only 9 percent.

Microsoft eases into telecom

Through a series of strategic product introductions, Microsoft is gradually easing itself into the telecom market. Info-Tech Research Group believes that Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) 2004 R2 represents the latest step in an ongoing campaign to evolve the company beyond its position as the dominant IT software vendor. Other recent voice-oriented moves from the software giant include the enterprise-class real-time collaboration server Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005, the integrated VoIP and IM client Office Communicator 2005 and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. Microsoft is also building bridges with hundreds of vendors, including IP PBX vendors like Alcatel and Siemens, to further the development of fully integrated VoIP solutions.

IP PBXs are Eclipsing Traditional PBXs

The IP PBX has reached a new stage of maturity with shipments of IP lines expected to exceed those of traditional PBXs this year, reports In-Stat. While the total PBX market is forecast to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 6.6% through 2009, the traditional PBX is in rapid decline, and the IP PBX will continue to gain momentum throughout the forecast period, the high-tech market research firm says.

The IP PBX is revealing itself as more than a simple one-for-one replacement vehicle for digital systems. With closer ties to data, this new vehicle is influencing corporate power structures and will ultimately have even more far-reaching effects on how business is done around the globe.

A recent report by In-Stat found the following:

• Increased mobility both within and beyond the workplace will be a significant factor in the next stage of IP PBX development.
• Currently, tying voice with presence and instant messaging is gaining a strong foothold. But, the real changes will stem from adding more data and ultimately video to the mix of collaboration tools.
• Between now and 2009, server-based IP PBX shipments will grow from 9.5 million lines to 28.1 million, at which point such systems will represent over 91% of total PBX shipments.