According to a report conducted by the Eastern Management Group, open source PBXs now account for 18 per cent of all PBX sales within North America, representing a growth rate of 40 per cent. This eclipsed the growth of every traditional PBX manufacturer. The once prevailing thought that the open source PBX is a niche product with only a few followers is over. (http://www.easternmanagement.com/)
“Open source based telephony products are simply tearing up the offerings of traditional telecom vendors. The demand is quite high across a myriad of industries. In fact, all industries seem to be using open source with the most noticeable growth coming from SOHO and SME customers.”
When asked why, Argent stated, “It’s not only because open source systems tend to cost upwards of 50 per cent less than traditional systems, but it is also the flexibility they offer in terms feature sets that makes choosing an open source solution a very appealing option across all business types. But, it is especially interesting for the small to medium-sized business that may not otherwise be able to afford such powerful options.”
At Digium Asterisk World, Eastern Management Group presented their findings and they noted that the 55 per cent, the majority, of open-source PBX sales are repeat customers. Many of whom they said are acquiring larger and more expansive systems as their businesses grow. This trend holds true with VoIPon’s customer and vendor base.
As part of a recent series of podcasts that VoIPon has created for its VoIP Uncovered blog (http://blog.voipon.co.uk), the company has also had the opportunity to speak with a number of opinion leaders in the emerging telephony industry to get their opinions on the future of the market. The resounding theme VoIPon report is that open source solutions are ready for prime time, as more and more businesses migrate to IP based solutions for their telecom needs.