The Magic Button
Ok. So let's just be clear to everyone about the complete logistics of the entire "Magic Button" proposition and that means for the accessibility of such functionality.
To start out with, the Magic Button is a single access point to functions on your PBX using your voice. What does this mean? Say: "call John Adams", "Call one-nine-two-zero(or "oh")-five-five-five-one-two-three-four", "Intercom John Adams, "Transfer to John Adams", "Transfer to John Adams' Voicemail", "Park call", "Retrieve Call Seventy One", "Retrieve Parked Calls". That's just the beginning of what has been discussed before. Now it's better. You can "Page All" (or any other page group), "Call Group <any ring group>", "Leave a message for John Adams", "Leave a message for group <any vm blast group you have setup>", "Check my messages" (all voicemail access with your voice, NO WAY!), "Record my name", "Record my greeting", "Record my temporary greeting". OK, now let's get into presence: "I'm away", "I'm in a meeting", "I'm at lunch", "I'm out of town". Then you are prompted: "Would you like to set a return time?" (first "date" you set a generic away or "out of town"). Then, "Would you like to set a temporary away message?". Say yes, and record a mesage that automatically gets set to your temporary voicemail message. (Oh, and did I mention that everything you say in the Magic Button in regards to presence links with your Aastra phone presence application and is now visible on your (and everyone elses) phone?). Now say "I'm back". You are now back. Someone in your organization is looking for you? "Where is John Adams?". "John Adams is at lunch until 1:00, would you like to be notified when this person returns?". You now say "Yes". Now when John Adams" says "I'm back" (or pushes I'm back on his Aastra phone), you (and anyone else who requested his presence) are automatically paged with a message "John Adams is available. Would you like me to connect you?". On your phone right now? A message notifying you of his return gets dropped into your voicemail box. And this only scratches the surface of what the Magic Button does. And it's all availble to every extension on your PBX in unlimited volume (and available remotely by logging via a DID or hidden IVR option. Apologies for the John Adams references, I'm obsessed with the mini-series on HBO.
OK, so now everyone has an idea what this all means, I hope. Now let's talk about "speech ports". If you have 40 people in your organization and every one of them is using the (very compelling) features of the Magic Button, how many ports do you need? Step back. Ok, so you have these 40 people in your organization using the Magic Button, but what about the "other" speech functions? What about the company directory, auto-attendant (IVR), etc, that "outside" people are using (and were developed and packaged with the Magic Button for your use)? How many speech ports do you need to ensure non-blocking? Non-blocking? What the hell am I talking about? How many total ports do you need to supply all the requests at any given time without your users (and customers) experiencing a total black out from the system? More than you willing to pay for on a 40 line PBX, that's how many.
Now, let's pretend for a minute that someone was able to pool together a LOT of licenses and over subscribe them and provide you not only with the functionality described above, but provide it to you WITHOUT a multi-thousand-dollar up front fee for licenses and software and instead charge you (your customer) $25/month. Is that a compelling price model?
Here's my big issue with the path this discussion has taken. Open source software is great, but nothing and I mean NOTHING in life is free. You think Asterisk is free? Just look at the thousands of people that have deployed Asterisk solutions and left their customers or organization high and dry because they didn't have the skill sets required to deploy a lasting working solution. That's not free. My biggest issue with the recent path of this discussion is the mis-information and/or outright lies that are being propagated about the pricing models of this solution. Before we address these false claims, let's first look at what telephony speech applications cost in the real world (open source zealots close your eyes). Speech recognition costs REAL money. Go download the open source speech recognition engine (it's called Sphinx) if you don't believe me. There were MILLIONS of dollars invested in this technology by Lumenvox. MILLIONS. Do you think it is coincidental that only the Fortune 500 have telephony speech applications right now? If you want telephony speech applications you are looking at mid-5-to-6-figure investment for *IVRS*.
Now let's look at our alternative. We are proposing $5-$50/month "per PBX" fee (depending on site size) for a button that gives you access to all the functionality of your PBX (and more!) with your VOICE. NOT a per-extension fee but ridiculously low per-PBX fee with soft caps. If that's not enough, let's just throw in the fact that you can create IVRs that are speech enabled under the same licensing scheme. Oh, and let's throw in a voice recognition company directory so your customers don't have to push an endless number of key sequences to find the person they are looking for. So, you get more functionality in your PBX than the Fortune 500 companies are paying tens-to-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars for UP FRONT for $5-$50 per month? Oh, and you can POINT-AND-CLICK your way to make this all happen. Any idea what it costs to have a professionally created speech-enabled IVR is for an Avaya, Cisco, or Nortel system is (not including port costs)?
This discussion has become so ridiculous that it is making my blood pressure rise with every new post I read and every word I write. I will not get more involved in this and let it get the better of me. If you have any questions about what is going on here, please feel to call me or email me.
Ethan Schroeder
Schmooze Communications, LLC
920-886-8130
ethan dot schroeder at schmoozecom dot com
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