R. Srinivasan
CEO
You have been in the PBX industry for more than three decades. What does the future of the PBX industry look like?
Like every industry, PBX is going through transition, the transition of market size, requirements, and Technology. The Boom for PBX started in 1990 primarily for sharing the scarcely available telephone lines and intercom. With the advent of aggressive mobile penetration, the PBX industry has been losing sheen over the last decade. Though the requirement of primary objective is shrinking by the day, the emergence of IP-based PBX has created new Market requirements like CRM integration, Call Centre solutions, IP-based paging solutions, IVR, and more.
What are the changes you expect in the PBX industry in the next five years?
A couple of major changes, Enterprise communication which is currently dominated by PRI lines will slowly be replaced by SIP lines which will pave the way for IP-based PBX solutions to replace that current obsolete PCM/ TDM. In fact, many major MNC brands like Panasonic, Samsung & Siemens have already quit this business. I am nobody to write an obituary for a
time-tested Technology, but the least I can predict is tougher times ahead for the existing PCM/TDM manufacturers.
How serious is the threat for PCM/TDM technology-based PBX from emerging IP based technology?
It is pretty serious to the extent of challenging their very existence. Any PBX development has three major components, mainly hardware, endpoints, and software. By nature, PCM/TDM is capital intensive, resource-intensive, and volume intensive, which creates an entry barrier for any new entrant to challenge big established brands. In IP-based PBX, as a normal computer is hardware, removes the hassles of hardware development, while a variety of open source SIP phones handle the endpoint issues leaving just software development as the one and only core issue to take care of.
How do the current market leaders and major brands view this change?
It's a Catch-22 situation for them. As explained earlier many have chosen to quit this industry while others are currently maintaining their established markets by backward integration of IP technology on their existing models. With no major brand emerging in the pure IP PBX segment coupled with the closure of a few powerful brands is helping them maintain their market leadership and continue the business. To the best of my knowledge, none of the leading brands have invested resources to create a product in pure IP technology.
Core IP technology is built on open-source components and has been in existence for over two decades. Fortunately for them, this existed in a small way all over the world mainly meeting Call Centres and a few customized Telecom requirements, installed and managed by a few local freelancers. This never posed a threat to major players, as no leading brand emerged internationally in spite of its obvious technological edge. As the search for pure IP solutions is pursued by customers due to
How serious is the threat for PCM/TDM technology-based PBX from emerging IP based technology?
It is pretty serious to the extent of challenging their very existence. Any PBX development has three major components, mainly hardware, endpoints, and software. By nature, PCM/TDM is capital intensive, resource-intensive, and volume intensive, which creates an entry barrier for any new entrant to challenge big established brands. In IP-based PBX, as a normal computer is hardware, removes the hassles of hardware development, while a variety of open source SIP phones handle the endpoint issues leaving just software development as the one and only core issue to take care of.
Transparent Ticketing system and OEM-ready product make us the one and only source to look up in this time of transition for a market and time-tested product
How do the current market leaders and major brands view this change?
It's a Catch-22 situation for them. As explained earlier many have chosen to quit this industry while others are currently maintaining their established markets by backward integration of IP technology on their existing models. With no major brand emerging in the pure IP PBX segment coupled with the closure of a few powerful brands is helping them maintain their market leadership and continue the business. To the best of my knowledge, none of the leading brands have invested resources to create a product in pure IP technology.
Core IP technology is built on open-source components and has been in existence for over two decades. Fortunately for them, this existed in a small way all over the world mainly meeting Call Centres and a few customized Telecom requirements, installed and managed by a few local freelancers. This never posed a threat to major players, as no leading brand emerged internationally in spite of its obvious technological edge. As the search for pure IP solutions is pursued by customers due to
changing requirements, the market leaders have started feeling the heat and in my opinion, it is too late for any of them to build a product in such a short time. Internationally many local brands are budding, throwing local challenges at this point in time which is likely to get bigger in the times to come.
It has been a very exhaustive and indepth view of the PBX industry, where do you stand in this transition at this point in time?
Having spent quality time in the Pbx industry for over three decades, I have seen its meteoric rise since 1990 and subsequent slip in the last decade. Fortunately, my software development background prompted me to get my hands wet in IP PBX development a decade ago & was promoting my product in a small way to my own direct customers for quite a while. Covid lockdown was a god sent opportunity that gave me pristine time to get it market ready. Today I have over 200 dealers across India and have a presence in nine countries outside India as well. We have executed many mission-critical projects in India and abroad. We are also partnering with market leaders supporting them in areas they face challenging requirements. We are also in touch with many market leaders for a possible OEM tie-up.
What makes your Product unique among other IP PBX developers?
In my opinion, most of the other products will have a flavour of software having been copied from some popular open source while our product was built from scratch with no reference to such products and has the look and feel of PBX. Having crossed a thousand installations across the globe, we are even now maintaining only one version of the software that keeps our support structure and cost under check and 99 percent of support requirements are met by our dealers, unlike other products where even basic support requirements are managed by the developer. A transparent Ticketing system and OEM-ready product make us the one and only source to look up in this time of transition for a market and time tested product.
R. Srinivasan, CEO, Trust marketing
R. Srinivasan has 30 years of experience and expertise in the Telecom industry, offering a range of Products & Solutions. A visionary who implemented Work From Home in 2011, runs a paperless digital organisation for over a decade with the help of a self developed ERP and automated all decision-making processes for the business to be self-reliant. He is also the main architect of Com1 Ip Pbx, which is deployed in over 1000 customers across India.
It has been a very exhaustive and indepth view of the PBX industry, where do you stand in this transition at this point in time?
Having spent quality time in the Pbx industry for over three decades, I have seen its meteoric rise since 1990 and subsequent slip in the last decade. Fortunately, my software development background prompted me to get my hands wet in IP PBX development a decade ago & was promoting my product in a small way to my own direct customers for quite a while. Covid lockdown was a god sent opportunity that gave me pristine time to get it market ready. Today I have over 200 dealers across India and have a presence in nine countries outside India as well. We have executed many mission-critical projects in India and abroad. We are also partnering with market leaders supporting them in areas they face challenging requirements. We are also in touch with many market leaders for a possible OEM tie-up.
What makes your Product unique among other IP PBX developers?
In my opinion, most of the other products will have a flavour of software having been copied from some popular open source while our product was built from scratch with no reference to such products and has the look and feel of PBX. Having crossed a thousand installations across the globe, we are even now maintaining only one version of the software that keeps our support structure and cost under check and 99 percent of support requirements are met by our dealers, unlike other products where even basic support requirements are managed by the developer. A transparent Ticketing system and OEM-ready product make us the one and only source to look up in this time of transition for a market and time tested product.
R. Srinivasan, CEO, Trust marketing
R. Srinivasan has 30 years of experience and expertise in the Telecom industry, offering a range of Products & Solutions. A visionary who implemented Work From Home in 2011, runs a paperless digital organisation for over a decade with the help of a self developed ERP and automated all decision-making processes for the business to be self-reliant. He is also the main architect of Com1 Ip Pbx, which is deployed in over 1000 customers across India.