Whaleback offers managed voice service

CrystalBlue Lite is designed to help carriers deploy OPEX-based managed voice service with no CAPEX costs

VoIP, unified messaging, products and services

Whaleback Systems has introduced a wholesale managed voice service that lets retail service providers combine managed voice and Session Initiation Protocol trunking. CrystalBlue Lite is designed to help carriers deploy OPEX-based managed voice service with no CAPEX costs, and it targets the 5-to-20 user small/midsize business market.

"CrystalBlue Lite" features a fault tolerant IP PBX that resides on the customer site. The managed appliance, deployed by Whaleback, does not require a truck roll and it integrates with SIP trunking services and broadband access services offered by carriers and MSOs, since the service can also interoperate with a third-party SIP trunk owned and operated by the retail carriers. The turn-key solution also includes one of three VoIP phones from Polycom that were picked by Whaleback to provide superior call quality, reliability and tight integration with the overall solution.

The company also unveiled a new "go-to-market" program created to help cable operators and other competitive carriers offer the managed service to the SMB sector. The new channel partner program supports carriers with the enabling technology, network operations, customer service, billing and overall project management -- along with sales training and co-marketing efforts.

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Whaleback Systems has introduced a wholesale managed voice service that lets retail service providers combine managed voice and Session Initiation Protocol trunking. CrystalBlue Lite is designed to help carriers deploy OPEX-based managed voice service with no CAPEX costs, and it targets the 5-to-20 user small/midsize business market.

"CrystalBlue Lite" features a fault tolerant IP PBX that resides on the customer site. The managed appliance, deployed by Whaleback, does not require a truck roll and it integrates with SIP trunking services and broadband access services offered by carriers and MSOs, since the service can also interoperate with a third-party SIP trunk owned and operated by the retail carriers. The turn-key solution also includes one of three VoIP phones from Polycom that were picked by Whaleback to provide superior call quality, reliability and tight integration with the overall solution.

The company also unveiled a new "go-to-market" program created to help cable operators and other competitive carriers offer the managed service to the SMB sector. The new channel partner program supports carriers with the enabling technology, network operations, customer service, billing and overall project management -- along with sales training and co-marketing efforts.

In a follow-up call we had with the company, David Zwicker, Whaleback's vice president of marketing, also pointed us to a white paper the company had written on how carriers can combine managed voice services over SIP trunks to maximize revenue, margin and market share in the SMB segment. The paper includes some market analysis and can be found here:  

In other news, Clarus Systems announced it has entered into an alliance with Microsoft to collaborate on "value-added testing and monitoring solutions" for Microsoft Communications Server 14. Clarus has also joined the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP), a program which is designed to "obtain real-world customer feedback on Microsoft pre-release products and provide technical feedback, support, and discussions with customers," according to prepared remarks.

Commenting on the partnership, Yancey Smith, director of communications server product management at Microsoft, said in a statement, "Combining Microsoft Communications Server 14 with Clarus' VoIP management software offers customers a great way to manage their infrastructure. Clarus' combination of end-user testing, health monitoring and configuration management can help deliver a quality user experience to our customers."

Read more about voip & convergence in Network World's VoIP & Convergence section.

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. Larry Hettick is a principal analyst at Current Analysis.